Chosen
by Pandora147
Summary: A spell used in Sunnydale to change the destiny of girls throughout the globe intersected with the path of a senior at East High School. All Gabriella wanted was to be normal. Her life would never be normal again. Crossover between HSM and BtVS. On Hiatus
1. It's The End Of The World As We Know It

**C H O S E N**

**Summary:**

**A spell used in Sunnydale to change the destiny of girls throughout the globe intersected with the path of a senior at East High School. All Gabriella wanted was to be normal. Her life would never be normal again. Cross over with Buffy, the Vampire Slayer.**

**Story Disclaimer: **

The author has no affiliation with Disney, Peter Barsocchini, Kenny Ortega or any other member of the High School Musical team. Furthermore the author has no affiliation with Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel: The Series, the Dark Horse comics… etcetera, etcetera. The requisite recognisable characters and themes are credited to their respective creators. I write purely for entertainment purposes with no funds being made in the process of the production of this work and I do not intend any sort of legal infringement with the production of my fiction. This disclaimer is applicable to this chapter and every subsequent chapter within this story.

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

**This is a High School Musical fiction which crosses over with the characters and universe of **_**Buffy, The Vampire Slayer. **_**Scared yet? You should be. Am I insane? You betcha. It's my turn to just follow my muse, to not analyse or be pedantic or try to write perfectly, to just write what has been niggling at me. In Nel's words – 'This is your Chillax story. Don't be so uptight with it and let it flow.' Thanks Nel, for encouraging me to post this dribble. **

**High School Musical Context:**

This story is set in the middle of senior year-ish time period. Assume HSM1 and 2 canon is real, from there… it's a Buffy cross over. Canon? What canon?!?!

**Buffy, the Vampire Slayer Context:**

This is set Post BtVS S7; it is set during A:tS S5; with the Angel canon being toyed with. Creative liberties will be taken with a lot. Disregard that in 'Buffy Time' this would be in like 2004. Senior year at East High intersects with the year following S7 of Buffy.

**If you enjoy supernatural TV series/movies/books but have not ever gotten super into Buffy: **

The key thing to note is that the 'folklore' and 'tradition' I use is Buffy based. So if you've only ever read Twilight and you're thinking _vampires don't do that _then there is probably difference between the depictions in different universes.

**If you are new to supernatural phenomena/Buffy: **

Good on you for checking this out! Thank you for being so awesomely open minded. Ultimately I write this as a High School Musical story. I've read supernatural world/non supernatural world cross-overs before and what you will find is that in blending the two, a lot of the explanation will come within my narrative. Give it a chance. Let me know if you are intrigued but would like more info i.e. in author's notes, to understand context.

**Feedback: **

Is sooooo needed. This idea is _**MENTAL**_ and I really really need to know if people are going to respond. If you give this a go and at some point feel that it's just too crazy, I'd really appreciate it if you could drop me a line and let me know. If you are enjoying it but you feel like you don't understand enough to be fully getting it, also let me know. I can elaborate in my exposition, I can provide more detailed author's notes, I can point you in the direction of some articles that might bolster your understanding.

**Without further ado… **

**I present…**

* * *

**C H O S E N **

**The Insane Works of Dani aka Pandora147**

**1. It's The End Of The World As We Know It**

**Chapter Disclaimer: **Lyrics quoted from the Jonas Brothers. The author has no affiliation with the band or record company.

* * *

Gabriella Montez had her iTunes blasting in her bedroom as she buzzed about, getting ready for the day. Lots of kids hated mornings; their alarm clock would go off and they would groan and press snooze, trying to put off the inevitable day at school. Gabriella loved school. Not only because she enjoyed learning. although that was a part of it. More so, Gabriella loved school because she loved seeing her friends, she loved being able to go to school and feel as though she belonged. Just one of the regular kids. She'd been at East High for just over a year and it had been the best year of her life.

She'd showered and dressed before bounding downstairs cheerily to consume her breakfast – granola, yoghurt and banana – and then returned to her room. She was singing along with her music as she packed her school bag and did the final touches of the tiny hint of make up she wore – lip gloss, a hint of mascara, the tiniest swipe of subtle eyeshadow. Her cell phone vibrated and chirped on the desk and she picked it up to glance at the screen. A smile toyed on her lips. She'd been awake for less than an hour and received no less than eight text messages from her doting boyfriend.

_Leaving home now, c u soon. –Troy xo_

Gabriella smiled and locked her cell phone before turning to take one last glance at herself in the mirror, still singing along to her music.

"_When you look me in the eyes, and tell me that you love me, everything's all right, when you're right here by my side, when you look me in the eyes, I catch a glimpse of…"_

Her singing paused mid sentence, a forlorn gasp escaping from her lips. She leaned forward further and tipped up her chin, staring in the mirror.

A zit.

"Noooo!" Gabriella exclaimed, in a slightly panic. "No, no, no, no, no!"

Gabriella was one of those lucky teenagers who had gone through adolescence without experiencing acne at its full throttle. The result however was that whenever a spot did appear on her face, it was a tragic affair.

"Gabi? Are you okay?" her mother's voice called through from her own room where she was preparing for her day at work.

"That depends on your definition of okay," Gabriella called back, her tone bitter.

She rushed into the bathroom, quickly examining her make up collection. She detested popping zits and so a cover up was going to have to be the approach taken. Maria Montez appeared in the bathroom door just as Gabriella was hunting through her make up kit for the appropriate concealer.

"What happened?"

"I have a zit," Gabriella informed her mother despondently.

"Oh, is that all?" Maria said, her hand covering her heart in relief that it wasn't anything serious.

"Is that all? IS THAT ALL? You know, we have yearbook photos on Friday."

"Honey, you can barely see it."

"Barely. Barely see it indicates that you can nevertheless see it."

The doorbell rang, and Gabriella let out a slight yelp. "And that's Troy and I cannot go out without covering this up."

"I'm heading out now anyway so I'll go answer the door on my way out. I'm sure you'll have time, he's a little earlier than normal isn't he?"

Gabriella smiled tightly. "Thanks. See you tonight."

She frantically began to slap the make up onto her skin. She didn't even hear Troy's footsteps in the corridor outside.

"Your mom tells me there has been a morning preparation set back," Troy's voice came from behind.

"Oh God Troy, don't look at me," Gabriella moaned, glancing up at his reflection in the mirror. "I look dreadful. LOOK at it! Just LOOK!"

Troy had a brief moment of panic where he wasn't sure whether she really wanted him to look or not look. He settled upon looking – and stared at her blankly. "Umm… what am I looking at?"

She pointed at where the concealer had merely discoloured the bump.

"Been eating too much chocolate babe?" Troy asked teasingly.

Gabriella elbowed him harshly, merely causing Troy to laugh.

"Gabi babe, you look fine. Don't stress about it. Have you seen that Nigel kid in sophomore year? He looks like the before ad in a Proactive commercial."

"The before ads in Proactive commercials look flawless," Gabriella grumbled, as she struggled to blend the foundation into her skin. This was why she hardly ever wore a lot of make up, because she had very little application ability.

"Are you now going to be in a crappy mood for the rest of the day?"

"Probably," Gabriella replied shortly.

"Don't you think you are being a little melodramatic?" Troy said, attempting to comfort her. "It's not exactly the end of the world."

"That is precisely what it is Troy, it is the end of the world," Gabriella said. She threw the make up sponge rather violently on the sink, conceding that she wouldn't be able to do her make up any better.

"Do you have your… umm… you know?" Troy asked tentatively.

Gabriella rolled her eyes. "No. That's next week. Trust you to assume that. A girl can't just feel upset about something."

"Right. So now it's the 'pre.' Hey that works out well, with me being in California checking out USC next weekend."

Gabriella raised her eyebrows. "That's a rather presumptuous statement, Mr Bolton."

"Well you name a weekend when we've both been in the same geographic vicinity and you haven't had your you know what, and we haven't had sex since we first did it?"

He was right. She couldn't argue. No such weekend existed. In fact they hadn't gone more than a few days. The hunt for privacy in the world of adolescents with watchful parents had merely exacerbated the thrill of the challenge. "But you say it like it's a given. What if… I just… didn't feel like it?" Gabriella said feebly.

"That would never happen," Troy said cockily. "You're just as horny as me."

Gabriella scoffed. "Please. As if. You wank like twice a day."

"Exactly. I wank and so my pent up tension is released."

As if in the goal of proving his point, from his place standing behind her, Troy swept her ebony locks aside, planting a line of kisses along her neck, suckling just beneath her ear. Gabriella involuntarily moaned slightly. His hands wrapped around her waist from behind, rising up from her taught abdomen beneath her t-shirt.

"We have to… go… to school…" Gabriella panted.

"But I haven't even had my good morning kiss yet," Troy murmured.

"Good morning… kiss then we go," Gabriella said, turning around within his arms.

She smiled slyly as her hands came to grip upon the back of his neck. She liked to act put out but the truth was that a part of Gabriella's ideal morning routine was indeed her good morning kiss with Troy. However often it was on her front door step with her mother lurking around just inside. Not upstairs just down the corridor from her bedroom with her mother already having left for work. Not while Troy seemed to have as a goal 'prove to Gabriella that she is horny.' His kiss was soft and tantalising, his tongue stroking languorously, only toying with Gabriella's imagination. He pulled away mid kiss, leaving her hanging mid air, desperate for more.

"So… after school my mom is working and my dad has a staff meeting… were you planning to study with Taylor?" Troy murmured.

"Hell no."

Suddenly, skin imperfections were long forgotten.

* * *

From afar, it was like any other East High morning scene. The building was the same. The lawn and front pathway were littered with students. Cars filled the parking lot. Buses were pulled up at the bus bay. However as Troy and Gabriella stepped out of Troy's truck, there was a sombre feeling which infiltrated the air. People were quieter. Groups were huddled together in private conversations. Gabriella gestured across the parking lot where Chad and Taylor were stepping out of Chad's car, also staring around in bewildered observance of how different everything seemed. Troy held up his hand in greeting, the foursome meeting midway and walking toward the morning meeting spot.

"Jeez, who died?" Chad remarked.

A petite, red haired girl ran past them, pushing into Taylor as she ran past. Taylor almost went to yelp something after her, along the lines of, '_Hey, watch where you're going!' _however realised in time that the girl was sobbing.

"Something weird is going on," Troy said, glancing around at the scene.

They approached their group of friends, spotting Kelsi and Ryan in a long hug, the rest of the group looking equally sombre as the rest of the class.

"What's going on?" Taylor asked, gesturing around.

"Haven't you guys heard?" Ryan asked, pulling back from his girlfriend.

"Evidently not," Chad replied.

"You know Dave Chadwick?" Zeke asked.

"Sophomore. JV Quarterback," Troy answered promptly, before adding thoughtfully. "Good guy."

"His younger brother was killed," Zeke said quietly.

Gabriella gasped, her eyes widening. "What?!"

"They think he was murdered," Martha said tearfully. "His… he was found at the middle school. On school grounds. One of my brothers is… was… friends with him."

"What happened?!" Chad exclaimed.

"No one knows for sure, it's being kept quiet. But I heard from someone who heard from someone that his blood was drained," Zeke said, finding it difficult to speak the words aloud.

"Isn't that… isn't that what happened to that girl from West High a couple of weeks ago…" Taylor said slowly.

Kelsi nodded miserably. "And that young nurse about a week before that. And there were some similar things happening up in Santa Fe not long ago. All with severe blood loss. Suspicious circumstances."

"What, you're saying that… that one of our… that there's some serial killer out there?" Troy asked, his eyes wide.

"Well… let's not jump to conclusions," Taylor said practically – her fearful eyes giving away that she had made the same conclusion herself.

* * *

Albuquerque was by no means a small city – it was the largest in New Mexico. But the community was small. Condolences were flooding to the Chadwick family. Even those who did not personally know members of the family were feeling the blow to the community. With three seemingly linked deaths in the space of less than a month, rumours and speculations were flying wildly about, people trying to draw the link between those who had been targeted. There was no apparent pattern, something which was inconsistent with the typical working of a serial killer.

But then again, how can one define the way in which a serial killer conforms to something _typical?._

* * *

"Yo Evans, chuck us a can of soda, would you?" Chad called out.

Ryan, who was in the kitchen complied, reaching into the open fridge he was standing in front of to retrieve a can of cola. He went and stood at the doorway between the kitchen and living area and tossed the can across the room. For a former pitcher, Ryan's aim was off and the can of soda went flying into the wall and exploded.

"Ryan!" Sharpay shrieked. "Daddy is going to kill us! He said we can only have people here if we don't make a mess!"

"Oh calm down, we're not in a room with carpet it's only floorboards, it'll wipe right up," Troy said, rolling his eyes.

Gabriella jumped up from her place at the table to rush into the kitchen to retrieve a cloth. Troy immediately reached forward to Gabriella's place directly in front of him, trying to decide which slice of pizza to snare.

"Troy, leave my food alone!" Gabriella called back.

Zeke laughed. "Since when did you get X ray vision Gabriella?"

She reappeared, seeing a sheepish Troy. "I don't, I just know Troy very well."

"I'm a growing young man, Ella. You want me to keep my energy up, don't you?"

Now that official basketball season was over, Friday night had become group hang out night. It was a habit which had been forged over the years. In freshman and sophomore year it had been the guys with various other female accessories hanging off them. In junior year, the regular female accessories were ditched for the permanent fixtures of Gabriella and Taylor, and the semi regular fixtures of Kelsi and Martha. Since summer, group dynamics had shifted somewhat.

The first change was that Kelsi and Martha's semi regular fixtures as a part of the core group were promoted. The second was that after summer, Ryan had started spending more and more time around his new group of friends – in particular with the young musical composer. Kelsi and Ryan had collaborated quite closely in the lead up to the fall musical. On closing night, Ryan asked Kelsi out. She said no. A week later he asked again. She said no. A week later he asked for the third time. She said yes. Three months later and they were very happily established in the beginnings of their relationship.

Jason was left heartbroken – well not really. His crush on Kelsi had only ever been minor, and it was more him crushing on her than the other way around. She'd always emphasised how much she 'valued his friendship.' And so Jason bounced back, dating a few of the cheerleaders and even branching out and going out with the captain of the girls' basketball team a few times.

At the end of summer, Chad finally had asked Taylor out. She had said yes, of course, and the two had spent three weeks kissing and cuddling and canoodling. They had a fight about what movie to see one night and broke up for a week before getting back together again. A month after that, a fight about Taylor's intent to purchase a car and not wanting Chad's assistance led to another break up, this time for two weeks. They lasted a whole two months the next time before breaking up when Chad was 'flirting' with the waitress at a restaurant. It took two days before Chad wooed his way back and things were once again right with the world.

Martha's kitchen role over summer at Lava Springs had cemented her own friendships with the boys, real friendships as opposed to simply having mutual friends. Additionally her close friendships with the girls served to solidify her place within the Wildcat crew.

As wary as Sharpay was of her brother's increased time being spent with his new friends, she was secretly in firm support of his relationship with Kelsi. It was a change, seeing him looking genuinely happy. She'd found herself hanging out with the group more and more, at first begrudgingly but then enjoying herself more and more. Zeke was persistent, she would give him that. She admired his determination. Finally she had agreed to go to the Christmas dance with him. They weren't exactly dating but they weren't exactly just friends. It was enough to provide Zeke with the hope that he should continue with his persistent behaviour – and enough to continue to make Sharpay feel special at being fawned over.

And of course, there was the heart and soul of group dynamics, Gabriella and Troy. Dating for a year – with the slight glitch of summer at Lava Springs which they had since moved past – the relationship was thriving and stronger than ever before. They seemed to exist within their own world, an extended honeymoon period which most couples moved on from after a few months. A couple of months into senior year, the pair had consummated their relationship for the first time. Since then, they consummated the relationship on a frequent basis. And it was far from a one sided horny boyfriend coercing his girlfriend into going along with his desires, with the instigation often coming from her side.

Gabriella slipped back into her seat at the long table after wiping up the mess on the floor.

"So, who else has decided that school officially blows and that they are going on homework boycott this weekend?" Zeke asked.

"That's like, every weekend man," Jason pointed out.

"This week was harsh though. First… you know. And then the teachers lay it on thick? What's up with that?"

"If I could have my blood drained soon, I would rather enjoy every minute of the day than sit around worrying about quadratic equations," Chad chimed in.

Kelsi dropped her slice of pizza back onto her plate. "Well, there goes my appetite," she remarked quietly.

Ryan's hand fell onto her thigh beneath the table, squeezing comfortingly.

"Did I tell you guys that I heard there were weird marks," Chad said.

"Marks?" Jason repeated, somewhat urgently. "What… what kind of marks?"

"Umm… I didn't hear that part. Just heard marks," Chad replied.

"Are you sure?" Jason prodded.

"Stop gossipping about it. We don't know what is real and what isn't and it's not right to be talking about it like it's some entertainment news item," Taylor admonished. "We agreed we were going to hang out like normal and stop speculating about it like we have been all week."

"I was just saying what I heard," Chad said defensively. "I know it's sad and everything but the fact is that we should be talking about it, because in the last month, three people between the ages of 13 and 23 have been killed and for all we know there have been more that they just don't know about yet. This puts us right into that target demographic. It could be anyone next. It could be you. It could be me!"

"Yes and we could also get into a car crash or a plane crash or be hit by lightening or have an asteroid plummet into the earth or be attacked by a dragon. But you don't run around freaking out about any of those things," Taylor countered.

"Tay, dragons aren't real," Chad said witheringly.

As the couple entered into a daily ritual over an argument pertaining to nothing that had anything to do with them, Jason was up the far end of the table, scouring through his cell phone. There was one who had observed the blind panic in his eyes when he had asked his seemingly innocent question.

"Jase, are you okay?" Martha asked quietly.

Jason looked up. "Umm yeah just… thinking about it all. My mom works with Mrs Chadwick and so it's… it's weird. I was hearing all about how they're all coping… or not coping," Jason explained.

Martha seemed satisfied with Jason's response – and Jason internally breathed a sigh of relief.

* * *

"_Please please please please please can I go with you?!" Jason begged. "We've been coming here to visit you guys my whole life, and since you were my age now you started ditching me to go off and hang out at this… Gold… place."_

"_It's called The Bronze," Jason's older cousin explained patiently._

"_Right, whatever. Well you know what, I turn fifteen soon. And all our parents are going to do is get into an argument about your dad's drinking and I'll be left here bored while you go off and hang with your friends."_

"_You seem to forget that I don't even live here anymore. I have my own place," the older boy said. _

"_Even better, can I come crash at yours?"_

_The cousin's eyes widened. "Uh… my girlfriend might not like that. She uh… she…"_

_Jason smirked. "A bit of a bunny in the sack?"_

"_Well, she wouldn't like to be associated with a bunny, but… yeah. Hang on! You're fourteen! You shouldn't be talking about my girlfriend like that! You haven't even met her!"_

"_Even more the reason why you should be letting me come hang with you and your friends."_

* * *

After dinner – and Taylor won the argument convincing Chad to stop talking about the recent deaths in the area – the Wildcat crew decided to settle down in the Evans' lounge room to watch a film.

"How about Scream?" Chad suggested.

"Chad Anthony Danforth! Do you WANT me to stop… doing… that thing?!" Taylor exploded.

Chad's expression filled with panic. "I'll be good. I swear. Let's watch whatever film Taylor wants to watch."

Zeke had settled down up one end of a sofa. To his astonishment, Sharpay had boldly walked in and sat down right beside him. He flashed her a toothy grin, to which she returned a small smile.

"Let's watch Superbad," Jason suggested.

A collective groan emitted from Kelsi, Martha and Taylor.

"Again?" Kelsi said aghast. "Didn't we watch that last week?"

"I vote yes," Zeke agreed.

"Me too," Chad chimed in.

"What happened to whatever film Taylor wants to watch?" Taylor muttered.

"Aww baby but… it's Superbad!"

"Shar?" Zeke asked.

"Whatever," Sharpay said, waving her hand away, not really caring what film they put on.

"Ryan?" Jason said.

"Uh…" Kelsi was glaring at Ryan, as though mentally threatening him to not agree. Meanwhile Chad, Zeke and Jason all had arms folded across their chests. "I'm happy to go with the consensus," he finally said meekly.

Chad rolled his eyes. "So we have four in agreement, three opposed, one fence sitter… Bolton? Gab?"

However Troy and Gabriella had not been participating or even listening to the conversation. They were still standing in the doorway between the hallway and the living room, engaged in a silent conversation. A conversation that went along the lines of a tantalising kiss, a squeeze of the ass and a pleading look from Troy in the direction of the front door.

"Sure," Gabriella replied distractedly, having no idea what they were talking about.

"Gabriella!" Martha exclaimed. "At least think before you respond to these questions."

"Hmm?"

"You just agreed to Superbad again," Taylor said, her tone indicating semi annoyance with her best friend.

"I bet you want to take off even more now," Troy said lowly.

"I did? Shit," Gabriella cursed, before turning back to Troy. As she spoke, she had her hands place on Troy's chest, ready to push him away playfully. "This is your fault mister, if you hadn't been distracting me with your…"

Gabriella pushed him playfully – well, the intent was to push him playfully.

It was like one of those moments in life that take place in slow motion. As she used her muscles to push him, she felt a surge of power, a surge of power that she never knew she had within. The surge of power translated into petite Gabriella Montez, who struggles to open jars of peanut butter, pushing her muscular, strong boyfriend so hard that he flew across the room. It was as though he was attached to a harness and a bungee cord had suddenly pulled him backwards. He landed with a crash in the hallway, slamming into a wall and nearly knocking over a sculpture likely worth thousands upon thousands of dollars.

Gabriella stood frozen, watching the dazed Troy as he registered what had just happened.

"Dude!" Chad exclaimed.

The Wildcats jumped up from their seats, now all watching Troy as he scrambled to his feet. Gabriella rushed over to his side.

"Oh my God are you okay?" she exclaimed.

Troy winced as he bent over, stretching out.

"No permanent damage but oh my God what the hell was that? What did I ever do to you and when the hell did you start taking steroids?" Troy exclaimed, rubbing his back. His tone was jovial but the genuine hint of demand was there.

"What happened?" Ryan asked.

"She just pushed me playfully but it was like I was hit with like one of those wrecking balls on a demolition site."

"Don't exaggerate, you just lost your balance is all," Gabriella said uneasily.

"Babe, we were standing there. I am over here. You do not lose your balance and get propelled ten feet away!" Troy exclaimed.

"Have you been like, working out or something?" Zeke asked Gabriella.

"No," she said, feeling rather uncomfortable at the sets of eyes staring at her, her arms folding across her chest.

"Bolton's just a pussy girl," Chad joked.

Troy turned to glare at Chad momentarily.

"Have you been studying martial arts perhaps?" Zeke persisted with his theorising.

"No!" Gabriella exclaimed. "I'm just me. Stop looking at me like that!"

"Oh come on Gabriella, he was just playing with you," Chad said. He reached out to touch Gabriella's shoulder comfortingly.

"Well it feels like you're all looking at me like I'm some…" she reached up to push Chad's arm away, no intent other than to remove his hand from her shoulder. Her gentle push caused Chad to stumble backwards and topple into Zeke, the pair falling to the floor.

"-freak…" she finished quietly, eyes staring at the pair on the floor.

"I just umm….. totally…. Lost my balance then," Chad said feebly, staring up at Gabriella with wide eyes. Chad scrambled to his feet. He shared a momentary look of understanding with Troy. Neither of them had stumbled. They'd both been pushed, pushed with a strength that no regular teenage girl should have.

"No you didn't, you like crashed into me violently!" Zeke exclaimed. "Gabriella, seriously, do you realise that is not normal?"

She did realise. She'd literally tapped Chad, his arm should have barely moved. And as for Troy – he was right. You don't just propel ten feet away through someone casually pushing you. She realised something was abnormal and it scared her to the point of not being able to cope.

"I have to… to… get… go…. I'm going…" Gabriella stammered, backing away.

"Babe, what are you talking about?" Troy prodded. "You don't have to…"

"I feel… I can't be here. I feel sick," Gabriella murmured. She was staring down at her hands, her own eyes wide. "I'm… I'm going… sorry guys… see you later…"

"I'm driving you," Troy insisted, moving toward the door with her.

"No I would rather be…"

"I'm driving you," he said once again, his tone firm. "There is some psycho out there and all jokes aside, you should not be walking out alone at night under regular circumstances."

Gabriella sensed the finality in Troy's tone and ultimately knew that he was right.

"Okay," she agreed softly.

Troy grabbed their jackets from the coat stand and handed Gabriella's over.

"Talk to you guys later," Troy called back, trying to make his tone as cheerful as possible as he followed Gabriella out the front door. She was walking strides ahead of him toward his beat up truck, her arms folded across her abdomen.

"Ella…" Troy said, as he hurried to catch up with her.

"Troy, I don't want to talk about it. Please just drive me home."

"I think you're being silly about nothing. I have been feeling tired lately so maybe you really did just throw me off balance and as for Chad, he's always been a klutz and…"

"I said I don't want to talk about it."

Gabriella stepped into the passenger side of the truck and rolled down the window. Troy sighed as he hopped up into the drivers seat. Just as Gabriella had sensed his resolve to drive her home, he sensed her resolve. If she didn't want to talk, she wasn't going to talk.

* * *

Meanwhile back inside the Evans' mansion, the Wildcats had silently taken their requisite seats in the living room. The jovial mood of earlier was drained. Instead, it was a mood of complete mystification.

"I have to go," Jason said abruptly.

"Not you too! What happened to movie night!" Ryan exclaimed, aghast. "We should just watch the movie and pretend like…"

"I have to do something," Jason said vaguely.

"What?" Kelsi prompted.

"I have to make a phone call. See you's later."

* * *

The entire car ride to Gabriella's was completely void of conversation, the radio playing at full blast to cover the silence. It was only when Troy pulled up and cut the engine that Gabriella finally turned and spoke to him.

"Troy?" Gabriella finally spoke, her voice tiny.

"Ella?"

"Can we… can we arm wrestle?"

Troy coughed. "Umm… do you really think that…"

"Please."

Troy nodded. They got out of the truck and went and took places on the front left corner of the vehicle.

"Wait, the bonnet will be hot," Troy said, and pulled off his jacket to lay over the metal. They placed elbows down and joined hands. "Ready?"

Gabriella nodded. "Ready," she said softly.

"1, 2, 3, go…"

It took precisely two seconds for Gabriella to win the match, to have Troy's hand pinned back. It left Troy's manly ego feeling a little dented – but more importantly, it left him completely flabbergasted.

"I knew I would win. I can't explain how I knew. But I knew."

"Gabriella, this is…"

"Fucking weird," she finished for him. "I um… I'm gonna go to bed. I feel really tired. I'll talk to you later. Thanks for the ride. Good night."

And with that, Troy watched as his girlfriend walked up the drive to her front door.

"Good night," his voice echoed.

* * *

Later that night, Jason was back at home shuffling about in his bedroom. He tossed his phone from his left hand, to his right hand, to his left hand and then back to his right hand again. Finally, he flipped through his address book, searching for the England based phone number of his cousin. His cousin being the one person who he knew that might be able to make some sense of everything that was going on.

"Xander? It's Jason."

* * *

**Author's Note: **Go on. Hit me with it. Keep in mind this is my random 'chillax story' (Nel that word has stuck...) and that I am obviously suffering from some sort of insanity.

-Dani xo


	2. Being Different Is A Sin

****

**C H O S E N **

**The Insane Works of Dani aka Pandora147**

**Author's Note: **

Thanks (on the whole) for the support guys, you all rock. Someday is my priority – but it can be really draining and the last thing I want is to burn out half way through and go on permanent hiatus. Thanks guys for the brilliant reception to this wacky idea, thanks for your open minded approach and supporting my insane left of centre endeavour. I don't write for you guys, I write for me, I would have written this even if no one had read it. But it just makes it even more awesome to have you along for the ride.

Just a note to the Buffy newbs/those who don't remember details from Buffy – stop stressing about not understanding everything immediately! Pretend it's like a mystery story where you spend half of it confused and then suddenly all the pieces fall together. Things will be explained gradually, keep in mind that it needs to be a bit elusive because our characters are feeling exactly like you – they are still at the _what the?_ stage. The beginning of this chapter will be a bit of an information overload for all – note to those of you that are not into Buffy, this isn't canon, this is post canon, I have invented/embellished upon the technical canon, using bits of the comics, bits of Angel and bits of my brain. So even people who've seen all of Buffy won't be familiar with it all :-)

* * *

**2. When You Live In A Cookie Cutter World, Being Different Is A Sin**

* * *

Alexander LaVelle Harris, commonly known as Xander, would at times sit and reflect upon how far removed his life was from anything he had once anticipated. One day he was just a regular high school kid. A bit dorky, not the brightest crayon in the box, problems with his parents. But he had good friends and good friends meant he had the world.

Then Buffy arrived and everything changed forever.

One day his biggest worry was whether he would pass the math test next week.

The next day, suddenly there were vampires and they were real. And there was one girl in all the world chosen to fight against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness. It had always been that way, but like most people, Xander grew up in blissful ignorance of the realities of the world.

Seven years Xander spent fighting by Buffy's side. They fought together, they battled together, they won together, they lost together, they grieved together. Their group expanded and contracted over the years, but at the core there remained the group who were there when it began, who were there each time when the end seemed to be near. Xander, Giles, Willow and Buffy.

Gone were the days of Xander the dropkick; Xander the ice cream truck driver/phone sex operator/hot dog vendor. Even Xander the big wig construction industry guy had been swept away.

Since learning of Buffy's secret identity, Xander had been involved in the fight against evil, but had never really had a concrete role. Giles was Buffy's Watcher – her teacher, her mentor, the provider of knowledge and wisdom. Willow always had something constructive to contribute. She was a genius, a tech whiz, she could hack into any website or database to conduct valuable time saving research. She could filter through Giles' archaic library of demonology books with expert speed. And then, there was the magics she had began to dabble with. At first helpful, at times a hindrance – but on the whole, they had become an absolutely instrumental element of the battle they fought.

Xander had just dabbled around, scrapping, fighting, researching, helping wherever necessary. Knowing he was doing something big, something important – but knowing that he could be doing so much more.

Until now.

Until the day when Sunnydale, California had ceased to exist. Literally. The survivors of the battle began to reform and regroup in their newfound Headquarters in Scotland.

Xander was now in a senior leadership role for the New Watchers Council. His role saw him overseeing the retrieval of Slayers throughout the globe.

Slayers.

Plural.

The prophecy had stated very clearly, "One girl in all the world, a chosen one, she alone will wield the strength and skill…"

Prophecies can be changed. They changed the prophecy.

And now, even Xander's crime fighting world was changing constantly. Such is the fact of life. Life is change. Change is life.

The buzzer on Xander's desk buzzed. Xander turned away from the computer to face the buzzer and press the button.

"Yes Karen?"

"Both Mr Giles and Miss Summers have arrived for the meeting," Karen's sultry voice sounded over the intercom. "Would you like them in the conference room or just to come through to your office?"

Xander exhaled. "Karen, I keep telling you that Giles and Buffy can come straight through, you don't have to buzz them in."

The door to Xander's office burst open and Buffy barged in, arms folded, glaring back at the receptionist in annoyance.

"Why won't you just fire her?" Buffy hissed, collapsing into one of the high backed cushy chairs facing Xander's desk. "She keeps doing this to me!"

Giles strolled in behind Buffy, rolling his eyes slightly as he closed the door behind him and sat down in the chair beside her. "She's just doing her job, Buffy."

"Whatever. So how was Africa?" she asked Xander brightly.

Xander had just gotten back from a whirlwind trip to Africa, collecting some of the new Slayers they had discovered, bringing them back to their Scotland base camp to initiate them into their Calling.

Xander nodded curtly. "On the whole it went well. A few glitches, but nothing that can't be taken and learnt from. Things ran smoothly here while I was away?"

"A few squabbles in the dorms, nothing that couldn't be handled," Buffy reported. "Take a bunch of 15 – 20 year old hormonal girls with Slayer strength and put them in the one building, we knew from the beginning that there would be problems in that area."

"You received my memo about Andrew's progress in Los Angeles?" Giles asked.

Xander nodded. "I did. Seems like this new Slayer is going to be a handful."

"She'll need time to adjust," Giles said diplomatically. "My biggest concern is actually in relation to some information I only just had sent to me from Willow, I received it right before coming here and at first glance… it could be slightly problematic."

Giles opened the folder he was carrying and pulled out topographical map, with a path marked in yellow highlighter.

Buffy raised her eyebrows. "Splainy?" she requested promptly.

"This is a map of a region of New Mexico in the United States," Giles explained. "The coven have detected some unusual supernatural activity occurring in the area. I'll put one of the teams to work researching what it may be."

"We don't have any Slayers based in that area, do we?" Buffy mused.

"At the moment no, closest is Robin and Faith's team in Cleveland," Xander said. "Giles, you sound concerned about this."

"The information was very new, nothing concrete, nothing specific. But Willow did indicate that there was something very dark brewing, darker than just your run of the mill vampires," Giles said ominously. "In general it concerns me because there hasn't been a lot of supernatural activity in this area at all before. Willow also said that they were having trouble detecting anything more specific because of some kind of conflicting power in the area. All we can do for now is look into it more."

"Okay, so not a typical vamp hotspot. Why now?" Xander mused. "And why not before?"

"He didn't say vampires, it could be anything," Buffy pointed out.

"Our best speculation is that the open desert terrain is not appealing, which makes sense for vampires. I've actually got one of my research groups looking into studying and learning more about vampires and their preferences for climate and living environment," Giles added as a thoughtful tangent.

"But there seems to be something going on here," Xander said, his voice grave.

Giles nodded.

Xander's buzzer went off again. "Yes Karen?"

"Sorry I know you're busy sir, but I have a Jason Cross on Line 2 who insists that you will want to take his call."

Xander's eyebrows furrowed. "Thanks Karen."

He glanced at Giles and Buffy before picking up the phone. "You remember Jason? My cousin?"

"The one from…" Giles said slowly.

"Albuquerque, New Mexico," Xander finished, nodding. He picked up the phone and hit the button for line 2.

"Hello?"

"_Xander? It's Jason."_

"How you going man? This a social call or business, because I'm actually in the middle of a meeting with Buffy and Giles."

"_Business, unfortunately. You might want to just put me on speaker, save you repeating what I'm saying."_

Xander nodded grimly and hit the speaker button. "You're on speaker. Hit us with it."

"_There's two things guys. Firstly, there's been about five reported deaths in Albuquerque and Santa Fe involving young people, suspicious circumstances and drained blood. There's a rumour about marks on the bodies going around as well. I also did some research and there are apparently some more missing people."_

"You thinking vampire related?" Buffy asked.

"_You guys are the experts, but… it sounds worthwhile of being checked out."_

"Okay. The other thing?" Xander prompted.

"_That spell you guys did… the one that changed it so that there isn't just the one slayer, that there are lots of slayers? You said that now, any girl who is activated as a potential at any given time will automatically have slayer strength?"_

"That's correct," Giles confirmed.

"_How does it work? Like… so all these girls would have been affected when you first did the spell yeah? Do others get born as potentials or is it at a later age that they might become a potential… and so now, become a slayer?"_

"We believe the latter, a girl needs to be at a particular age and state of emotional development before she will be identified as a potential," Giles said. "We're still working out the precise implications of the spell. At the time it wasn't really performed with consideration for the follow on ramifications, rather its focus was upon the immediate danger at hand."

"_Okay. Well if you're saying that a teenage girl could suddenly just become a Slayer at any random point now… I think I know one of your newest Slayers."_

* * *

It was 11 in the morning on Saturday, the morning after the eventful hang out at the Evans' household. Gabriella had barely slept a wink, and was now standing outside of the Bolton house. She'd rang the doorbell three times with no response. She assumed that Lucy was working and Jack was out somewhere, but she knew Troy was home since his truck was parked out the front. Gabriella fished her cell out of her pocket and tried calling Troy, rolling her eyes as it rang out three times.

Gabriella glanced over at the side gate, pausing contemplatively. She had to see him, then and there, she simply couldn't wait any longer. She traversed over to the gate, as she suspected it was locked. Under normal circumstances the idea of Gabriella being able to scramble over a gate that was taller than her would be ridiculous. Now, all she did was turn and glance around furtively, checking for neighbours in their gardens – before promptly reaching up, latching her hands onto the top bar, and pulling her weight up until she could swing her legs over and land feet first on the opposite side of the fence.

She quickly walked around the side of the Bolton house to the backyard. Troy's room was on the ground level; with white French doors which opened from his room to the backyard – in other words, within twenty feet of the basketball court. His red curtains weren't quite closed properly, providing Gabriella with a clear view into his bedroom.

For a brief moment, Gabriella paused, a smile taking over her face. She could see Troy through the crack in the curtains. He was a deep sleeper – hence why he hadn't awoken to her tirade of missed calls – and although he seemed to fall asleep either on his stomach or side, he seemed to wake up lying flat on his back, sprawled out. Troy was also really weird with temperatures – Gabriella would be shivering and requesting more blankets and Troy would be overheating. She liked to tell him teasingly it was because he was simply THAT hot. He only had a sheet covering him – with the sun filtering through the opening in the curtains, it wasn't surprising to Gabriella that he had kicked off his comforter. She smiled coyly at the slight tent being formed under the crisp navy sheet, somewhere between his upper thigh and abdomen.

Her reverie washed away, suddenly regaining clarity of exactly why it was that she had marched over and was so anxious to talk to him.

Gabriella turned the handle of the door – which of course Troy had chosen the night before to be security conscious and lock. She rolled her eyes and proceeded to rap loudly on the door. She pulled out her cell phone, once again dialling his number. She could see his phone on his night stand, she could hear it ringing even through the other side of the glass.

Troy stirred slightly, and somehow, between the ringing of his phone and the rapping at the glass, blearily opened his eyes just as his phone stopped ringing. It took him a moment to register that the rapping at the glass wasn't a figment of his imagination and he looked up to see Gabriella and her impatient tapping against the door. Troy blinked, almost as though not comprehending that she was there, before dragging himself out of bed to walk over and open the doors.

"Ella babe, what are you…" he began to say.

"No one answered the door and you didn't answer your phone."

Troy leaned over to give her a quick kiss good morning, but Gabriella breezed straight past him into the room.

"Oh… did we… have plans for this morning?" Troy asked, suddenly panicking that he had overslept and this was why she was being a little hostile.

Gabriella shook her head. She picked up a pair of sweat pants and threw them to him. "Put them on and come with me," she said.

Her tone was short, direct, to the point, commanding. It was concerning Troy but he didn't dare disobey. He pulled the dark green sweats on and Gabriella went back out through the French doors and around the side way to the patio where there was a weights set. Troy was still bleary, and rubbed his eyes and yawned. Gabriella on the other hand was very awake, immediately she went over to add an extra plate to each end of the barbell. As she moved, she spoke in a calm neutral tone, a tone that was void of any emotion at all.

"I didn't tell you about this because I didn't think anything of it at the time. But on Thursday afternoon I went grocery shopping with my mom and I just… I had the weirdest sensation in the middle of the grocery store. I like… I just suddenly felt…. I can't explain it any other way but I suddenly felt empowered. And then later when we were carrying the groceries inside and normally I pick up like two bags in each hand and I'm already struggling under the weight and it just felt like I was carrying feathers. So I picked up some extra bags." Gabriella was moving backwards and forwards, adding extra weights to the ends of the barbell. "In my brain I kinda thought that maybe since we've been… you know… that I've actually gotten fitter. Because, logically, we've been doing it a lot and sex does work different muscles and is a proven calorie burning task so I just put it down to that."

Gabriella stopped speaking and went to stand behind the barbell, as though she were spotting someone. Except she wasn't spotting someone. She reached out to place her right hand in the centre of the bar. Troy's eyes widened, registering what she was about to do.

"Ella… you've put like a ridiculous amount of weight on there, like twice more than what I can press, I think you should…"

Gabriella held her left hand up, silencing Troy. She stared directly at him as she picked up the barbell with her right hand. She picked it up as though she'd picked up a javelin stick, or a tree branch. Troy's eyes were wide, his mouth gaping, as he watched her hold the barbell, then toss it up and catch it with her left hand.

"You… that… it…" Troy stammered. "Did you… did…." He coughed, and shook his head quickly as he focused his eyes, making sure he was seeing properly. "Did you like, put fake weightless plates on there?" he managed to ask.

Gabriella set the barbell back onto its rack and held out her hand to encourage Troy to test it. He hesitantly stood where she had been standing, placing both his right and left hand onto the barbell. As he had feared would happen – and desperately hoped wouldn't happen – he couldn't even lift the bar from its resting spot.

"I'm not dreaming am I?" Troy whispered.

It was seeing the bewilderment on Troy's face which broke Gabriella. She had been able to remain calm under some tiny, miniscule hope that she would arrive at Troy's, show him what she had realised she could do, and he could provide some perfectly logical, rational explanation. Fix things. Fix her. Keep her calm. Like he always did.

Troy watched as the calm expression on her face broke, her calm resolve that was merely a smokescreen collapsing. Almost instantly, tears began to well in her eyes.

"No. You're not dreaming," she managed to choke out.

"Ohh… Ella… babe…" Troy said soothingly. If there was one thing Troy couldn't stand, it was seeing Gabriella upset. She was shaking violently, he could see that she was petrified and the truth was that he was completely shell shocked himself, trying to register what he had just seen, trying to process and work out exactly what was going on. But in that moment, it didn't matter how he felt, all that mattered was that Gabriella looked like she was about to break down. He instantly pulled her into his arms, engulfing her within the warm, comforting sanctuary of his embrace. He hushed softly, cooing slightly into her ear as he rubbed her back in an attempt to placate her. "Ella, everything's going to be okay babe," he murmured.

Gabriella stiffened within his hold, causing Troy to pull away.

"IT'S NOT GOING TO BE OKAY! TROY LOOK AT THIS!" Gabriella's screech was approaching an ultra sonic decibel. She picked up the barbell once more, this time lifting it above her head and waving it around as though it were a flag. "HOW CAN THIS BE OKAY?!"

"Babe, you have to calm down!" Troy exclaimed. "Please put the barbell down."

Gabriella obeyed his request for putting the barbell down – but not the request to calm down.

"How am I supposed to calm down? This isn't normal!" she exclaimed. "This DOESN'T JUST HAPPEN. This goes against every principle of logic and rational thought that I know. It goes against biology and… and… and it just goes against everything! I saw the look on your face just then! I see that you're freaking out right now! And I don't blame you because I'm past freaking out!"

Troy placed his hands on Gabriella's upper arms. "Okay. I get that. You're right, I am freaking out," he said honestly. "But you just said it – it goes against logical and rational thought that you know. This doesn't just happen. There has to be a reason for this, a reason you just don't know yet."

"Are you trying to convince me of this, or yourself?" Gabriella asked, her eyes shining with tears.

"Both," Troy said firmly. "But it's true. There has to be a logical explanation. And you know what? We're gonna work it out. Okay?"

Gabriella didn't respond immediately, just stood staring at the barbell.

"Okay?" Troy repeated firmly.

"Okay," Gabriella said in a tiny voice.

* * *

"Giles, do you _really_ think this is necessary?" Buffy asked, as she lugged her quickly packed suitcase out to the front of the giant New Watchers Council estate. Estate really was an understatement. It was more like a small community. Buffy and her 17 year old sister Dawn lived in a cottage next door to the dormitory building, and adjacent to the training facilities.

"Yes I do. We've been saying for a while that we want to personally view the situation in Cleveland, so it seems ideal that we step on it and head immediately to New Mexico, retrieve the newest Slayer, find out what we are dealing with – and then if necessary, retrieve Faith and Robin for back up to deal with whatever it is we are dealing with accordingly," Giles said.

Buffy blinked. "I think I stopped listening halfway through, but sure."

"You, Buffy, are the one who pointed out that you are conducting a revision week not this week coming but the week after; and that it would be ideal that we try to get as many new Slayers settled in by then so they can take the revision course," Giles pointed out.

"But it's so early," Dawn complained, having heard the trail end of the exchange. She had just appeared from the direction of the cottage to their meeting place, and she dropped her own suitcase beside Buffy's and rubbed her bleary eyes. "I don't even know why you were all awake this early this morning."

Buffy rolled her eyes. "It's 11am. Did you lock up properly? And you didn't have to come," Buffy reminded her.

"Yes I did, and I am the one who wanted to come."

"Then don't complain that it's too early."

"I want to come but I don't understand why we had to leave this quickly."

"Why put off until tomorrow what can be done today?" Xander said cheerfully.

"You really don't need to come Xand, you only just got back from Africa," Buffy pointed out.

"I want to come. I miss the good old U S of A, and it'll be good to see Jase."

The limo pulled up, and the driver got out to help put the group of four's suitcases into the trunk. Once they were settled into the backseat, discussion resumed.

"Did your cousin give us any more information about the new slayer? Uh was it… Gabrielle?" Buffy said.

"Gabriell-a," Xander corrected. "A bit. Most importantly, I think, is that she is an actual genius, very science and math based. In other words… she's not going to accept any of this very easily."

"No one accepts it easily," Bufffy said quietly.

"No, they don't… but… she really won't."

* * *

Gabriella was sitting at her desk, speed reading through the article on her computer screen.

"You're sure you haven't changed anything in your diet lately?" Troy prompted.

He was lying back on her bed with his own laptop resting on his knees which were drawn up.

"We've been through this Troy," Gabriella said softly. "Unless your sperm has steroids in it…"

Troy wrinkled up his nose. "That statement was strangely off putting although you were referring to blow jobs." Gabriella managed to crack a smile, mirroring a smile from Troy. "See? There's my girl."

"I don't think we're going to find anything," Gabriella said quietly, spinning around in the desk chair. She was facing Troy but she was staring down at the carpet, refusing to actually look at him in the eye.

"Do you want to keep looking anyway?" Troy enquired.

Gabriella shook her head. "It's depressing me. Can we just, like, go downstairs and watch a DVD or something?"

Troy nodded. "Anything you like."

He set his laptop down on the bed and swung his legs around to stand up. Gabriella stood up and encircled her arms around her abdomen, hugging herself tightly, as she walked deliberately a few steps in front of Troy. She ducked her head into the kitchen where her mother had decided upon a weekend cooking frenzy.

"We're just going to watch a DVD, okay?" Gabriella said.

Maria Montez nodded. "I'll bring you in some cookies when they are ready, about ten minutes to go til they come out of the oven."

"Thanks Ms. Montez," Troy said politely.

"Gabi honey, are you okay?" Maria asked.

"Fine," Gabriella said shortly, forcing a placating smile from her lips to flash at her mother. She then led the way into the TV room.

"What movie?" Gabriella asked.

"You pick. I picked last time," Troy said.

He couldn't really recall who had picked last time but Gabriella wasn't in the place to argue with him. He simply sat down on the sofa and she went over to the DVD cabinet. She ran her hand listlessly over the options, randomly selecting Liar Liar from the cabinet. Familiar comedy seemed like a good bet with her current state. She popped the disc into the player and went over to sit beside Troy on the couch. Except she didn't sit snuggled up close to him as she would normally, she sat with a respectable gap between them, as though back in the earlier stages of the relationship when they were afraid of a parent seeing them appearing couple-ish. They'd moved far beyond that.

Troy tentatively shuffled a little closer and held his hand out to attempt to seize her hand within his own. However Gabriella flinched and snatched her hand away.

"Ella?" Troy asked questioningly. "Is… are you… did I do something wrong?"

Gabriella's eyes widened, turning to look sharply at him. "Don't say that," she breathed. "I… this morning… a part of me was petrified to go over to your house. I had a split second of contemplating just pretending that I hadn't realised what I… what I could do. Acting like last night was some freak thing. But… it was a split second pondering which went away immediately because the idea of keeping something like this from you…. The idea of dealing with it without you…" Gabriella took a breath. "I'm scared out of my mind right now Troy. If it wasn't for you, I'd probably be in my closet rocking backwards and forwards in the foetal position."

Troy nodded, and swallowed. "Ella… I'm scared too. I'm scared of… of IT. But I'm not afraid of YOU. So don't pull away from me. We're gonna work this out. Together."

He shuffled over a little closer, his hand comfortingly caressing her thigh.

"I feel this power in my fingertips. A power I don't understand. I'm afraid that if I touch you, I'll be holding too tight. That I'll like, hug you and break a bone," Gabriella whispered. "That sounds ridiculous but I shoved you lightly and you went flying across the room. And… and hurting you is… is… is…"

"Ssshhhh," Troy hushed her soothingly.

He pulled her slender form down to its rightful place snuggled into his side, and drew her arm around his waist, placing her hand against his side.

"See… not hurting me at all," he murmured.

Troy kept his arm wrapped tightly around the slight, shaking girl within his grasp. He had no idea what was going on, he wasn't the scientist of the pair. All he has was himself, all he had was his ability to soothe and comfort and support. And soothe and comfort and support he would. No matter what eventuated.

* * *

Late Saturday night, Buffy, Giles, Dawn and Xander had landed Albuquerque Airport; and were in a limo driving into town. They were staring out the windows, taking in the view of the vast Chihuahuan Desert terrain; at the breathtaking picturesque backdrop of the Sandia Mountains.

Buffy cleared her throat. "Well. We're not in Sunnydale anymore."

* * *


	3. Pick Of Destiny

**C H O S E N **

**The Insane Works of Dani aka Pandora147**

**Author's Note: **

Thanks to everyone who has been reviewing and showing your support for this piece. I encourage you to keep letting me know your thoughts, as I've said before this is a really challenging story and I need your constant feedback to keep in touch with how you're feeling about it. As I post this, tomorrow I fly to Sydney to go watch the red carpet arrivals at the HSM3 Sydney premiere, which is on Monday night. Yay!

* * *

**3. Pick of Destiny**

* * *

If it were up to Gabriella, she would have slept the weekend away. On Saturday night, she'd gone to sleep with the hope that she'd wake up and it all would go away. Instead, she woke up in the middle of the night after having a really peculiar dream. All she could remember was tiny fragments. There was a necklace with a silver cross. There was a tall, pale, dark haired beauty wearing a floaty, velvet dress, the woman swaying backwards and forwards. There was Troy, running from something. There was a black leather jacket. Gabriella woke up at about 3 in the morning in a cold sweat and from that point was unable to get back to sleep, and merely tossed and turned for the remainder of the night.

Mid Sunday morning, she'd received a phone call from Jason insisting that she and Troy had to come over that afternoon for some gathering he was holding. The concept of leaving her bedroom wasn't at all appealing. She'd gotten out of bed only to use the bathroom and brought her laptop over to bed. It didn't matter that she'd completed all of her homework, Gabriella was willing to find anything to do that involved not moving from her bed. She had told Jason she wasn't sure of her plans for the day and would get back to him – with the intent of not getting back to him at all. However Troy arrived at her house within the hour, being let in by Maria Montez.

Troy knocked at Gabriella's door. "Ella babe? It's me," he called, before opening the door. He took one look at Gabriella lying in bed, still wearing one of his t-shirts, her hair mussed up – and his heart sank for her.

"Whatcha doing, your mom said you haven't even gotten out of bed yet," Troy said softly.

"That's a lie. I used the bathroom," Gabriella responded swiftly. "And I just happen to be using my time very constructively."

Troy perched beside her and peered at the screen. "Just Jared? Since when do you care about celebrities?"

"This is very useful information. Look umm see… Miley used to clean toilet bowls. Good to know," Gabriella said listlessly.

"Jason called me, said he called you. Sounds like going to his place could be fun. The whole gang is going," Troy said.

"I'm sure you will all have fun together."

"Gabriella, lying in bed all day isn't going to make anything better. You should come hang, maybe it'll distract you and you can forget about everything."

Troy stood up, proactively going over to her closet. "Let's see, what should Gabriella wear today…" he mused, and began to rifle through. He selected a floral, flared skirt and a polka dotted blouse and held them up. "What do you think?"

Gabriella cracked a smile. "Well I definitely can't be seen in public wearing those two things together."

"Oh really? I think it would look… fetching," Troy said, smirking slightly.

Gabriella merely raised her eyebrows. At least she had set her laptop down on the bedspread and sat up slightly, which was movement.

"Okay, so you don't like that idea. Okay what about…" Troy moved over to her drawers and located a small black bikini set. "This."

"Yes, you'd love that, wouldn't you?"

"That I would."

He opened the top drawer with her underwear and picked out a black lacy bra and thong set.

"At least wear this with whatever you wear," Troy requested with a cheeky grin, and laid it out on the bed. He then returned to her closet, instead being serious and picking out a pair of grey jeans and a floral blouse. "Better?"

"I really would rather just stay in bed."

"I know, but that's not happening. Do I need to like, jump on you and tickle you to force you to move?" Troy asked.

"Couldn't I just stay in bed a little longer? Jason said later this afternoon, after all," Gabriella pointed out.

"But your wonderful, loving, caring boyfriend thought that maybe we could go for lunch before we head to JC's," Troy suggested. "Or, in your case – breakfast."

"I'm not hungry," Gabriella said resolutely.

"Fair enough, but, you don't need to be hungry to enjoy pancakes," Troy pointed out, dangling the prospect in front of her face.

"You're not going to give in, are you?"

Troy shook his head. "I really think that it will do the world of good to get out and just try to have fun and not worry about it, at least for today."

* * *

Gabriella dragged herself out of bed and went along with Troy's plan. He did have the capability of distracting her, of being completely random and just taking her away from everything. However, the moment she entered Jason's house, the feeling of distraction disappeared and instead was replaced by claustrophobia. Even though her friends had witnessed something peculiar on Friday night, they certainly weren't aware of the extent of the peculiarity that was going on. They were acting normal – but the majority of her friends weren't actors, and so acting normal came across as acting strangely. A forced pleasantry, a forced ignorance of everything they'd witnessed.

The pressure for Gabriella to not do anything out of the ordinary was tiring her. She was sitting on the floor snuggled up to her own personal cushion – Troy. He was leaning back against the leg of the couch, his arms wrapped around Gabriella protectively. Their arms were entwined, folded across her abdomen. She was doing every she could to just relax into his embrace, but she couldn't help but feel on edge, she couldn't help but feel tense. Troy could feel her tension, doing everything within his power to soothe her, pressing the occasional kiss to her shoulder, gently rubbing his thumbs against her delicate hands which were entwined with his own.

The Wildcats were all just sitting around, Chad and Zeke had taken over the X Box and Gabriella was feeling a little annoyed that she'd been dragged out for an afternoon of watching other people partake in unnecessarily violent video games. Gabriella never did understand violence.

"Jason, is there any specific reason why you wanted everyone to come hang out here?" Gabriella asked, attempting to sound polite but the annoyance seeping through her tone.

"Do I need a reason to want to hang out with my friends?" Jason said quickly. The truth was there was a reason why he needed Gabriella there, and that getting the whole group together had been the easiest way to orchestrate it. "I was bored, I called around, no one had any specific plans, everyone is broke, I thought we could hang together. Is that a crime?"

"No Jason, it's not a crime," Kelsi said, sensing the defensiveness in his tone – but not understanding the true motivation behind it.

Gabriella also sensed the defensiveness and felt a little bad for taking out her annoyance on him. It wasn't unusual that they would all get together randomly for a few hours and hang out doing nothing in particular.

"Sorry if I sounded bitchy, it's nothing against any of you, but I kinda feel like going home and sleeping," Gabriella said honestly. The true context of the statement being in what remained unsaid, _I want to go home and go to sleep and forget that any of these last two days happened and maybe I will wake up tomorrow and it'll all be gone._

"If you're tired then maybe that's a good idea," Martha said.

Jason's eyes widened. "No! You have to stay. Come on Gabriella, just wouldn't be the same without you here."

"And what am I doing exactly other than providing Troy with an accessory?" Gabriella asked.

"Hey if that's all you are then lucky me," Troy said, pressing his lips to her neck once again softly.

The doorbell rang – and Jason internally breathed a sigh of relief, and jumped up quickly.

"I wonder who that is, we're all here and your parents are out," Ryan mused.

"Probably some door knockers wanting a donation or something," Taylor said.

Jason moved toward the door, looking through the peep hole to see his cousin Xander at the door, with other familiar faces behind. He opened the door, grinning broadly.

"Jason buddy, sup man?" Xander greeted his younger cousin.

"Love the pirate look dude," Jason said jovially, having not seen Xander since an eye injury in battle the previous year had left him with an eyepatch.

Buffy and Giles stepped forward.

"Buffy, Giles, you remember Jason?" Xander said.

Buffy smiled. "Of course. I remember every person whose life I have saved."

Jason rolled his eyes. "It was just the once."

* * *

_Fourteen year old Jason Cross could not have been more excited. He didn't like to admit it, but he wasn't particularly fond of his Aunt Jessica and Uncle Anthony. Xander was his favourite cousin and so he loved coming to Sunnydale. But being in the house with his aunt and uncle was draining. All they did was argue – argue with each other, argue with Jason's parents. Jason knew that his parents only really came to visit out of a sense of familial obligation. And so Jason was excited because Xander had given in and agreed that Jason could tag along with him and his friends at the Bronze. The Bronze being the only place in Sunnydale that was worth being. _

"_Hey, we should hook Jason and Dawnie up!" Willow suggested excitedly._

"_Dawnie?" Jason repeated dubiously._

"_No!" Buffy exclaimed, eyeing Jason. _

"_Who are you talking about?" Jason asked. _

"_My sister. She's fourteen."_

"_Oh?" Jason said, his interest piquing. Buffy was hot. Full stop. But being 20 and taken by Riley, she was of course beyond Jason's reach. A fourteen year old version of Buffy however…_

_Xander kicked Jason under the table, seeing the look of approval Jason had given his best friend, and suspecting exactly what he was thinking._

"_No way. My fourteen year old baby sister does NOT date. Not in a million years," Buffy said decisively. _

_Jason looked a little disappointed. "Willow? Tara? Riley? Do any of you guys have little sisters?"_

"_Aren't the ladies treating you well back in Albuquerque?" Xander asked. _

"_They all spend their time fawning over my friend Troy. Troy this, Troy that," Jason said, rolling his eyes. "_

_A blood curling scream sounded from the direction of the bathrooms. Buffy immediately leapt to her feet, sharing a glance with Riley. _

"_We'll be back," Buffy said quickly, and the pair quickly disappeared. _

"_Do you think someone hurt themselves?" Jason asked, glancing over in the direction of the bathrooms in concern. _

_Another scream sounded. "Maybe we should go…" Willow began to say. _

"_Hey Jase, why don't you save the table for us? We'll be back in a minute. I'm sure it's nothing," Xander said calmly._

_Willow, Tara and Xander now all headed in the direction of the bathrooms. Jason twiddled his thumbs, picking up his cola and taking a large gulp. When a third scream sounded, Jason glanced around. The place had cleared out rather quickly. He was beginning to not like the idea of sitting around on his own. He made the quick decision to go and investigate. He hesitantly headed over where the rest of the group had headed. No one appeared to be around the bathroom, but he could hear something going on through the side entrance in the alley. He went through and before even registering anything, someone blindsided him and shoved him aside. _

"_Jason!" Xander shouted. _

_Jason stood to his feet, looked up and saw a girl with a strange face approaching him, her teeth were sharp and pointy, and she let out a predatory growl. Jason suddenly felt a pair of strong hands grab onto him from behind and shove him aside once again, with a whole lot more force than the first push. He crashed into the dumpster and looked up, eyes wide at the sight of about a half a dozen people with crazy faces, in the midst of a full blown fight with Buffy and Riley. Xander and the girls were also helping out where they could. Jason's eyes were drawn to Buffy, drawn to her speed, her strength. A piece of wood suddenly appeared in her hand – Jason had no idea where from – and she stabbed the guy she was fighting before turning to stab a guy who was about to lunge at her from behind. _

_The two guys both exploding into dust._

_Buffy and Riley made quick work of the remaining four, Riley taking out two of them and Buffy the other two. Again, pieces of wood were stabbed into their chests and again, they exploded into dust. Jason was wide eyed, staring in absolute disbelief at what he had just seen. Xander rushed to Jason's side. "_

"_Jase, are you okay?" Xander asked urgently._

"_What the fuck was that?" Jason exclaimed, his eyes shining with excitement._

_Xander sighed. "We have a lot to talk about. Or… maybe we'll just go over to Giles' place and he can explain it."_

* * *

Giles smiled warmly at the younger man. "Jason, thank you for calling us, we appreciate it."

"Hey, no worries. Once I got pulled into this whole world, I was in it for…" Jason trailed off, his eyes landing upon the fourth member of the contingent who was dragging behind as she came up the driveway. "…real," he finished.

Dawn smiled. "The infamous Jason."

"Uh… hello," Jason said, a little awkwardly.

"Jason, this is Dawn, Buffy's younger sister," Xander said. "Dawn, this is my cousin Jason."

Jason cleared his throat, finding himself somewhat at loss for words – much like he often was around attractive girls. The tall brunette with the large blue eyes fell right into the category of girls who rendered Jason somewhat unable of coherent speech.

"Sup," Jason finally said.

"Um… hi," Dawn said, a little perturbed by Jason's weirdness.

Xander rolled his eyes. "So she's here?" he asked, attempting to steer the conversation on track.

"Um, yes, she…"

"Hey Cross, where is your PS2 controller?" Chad's voice bellowed from the lounge room.

"Unless she is rather manly…" Buffy began to say.

Jason quickly stepped outside and eased the door shut behind him. "My whole group of friends are here. She's like in my group of friends, but I'm not really close with her personally. So the only way I could get her here was with everyone."

"How many people is everyone, exactly?" Giles asked, glancing at the driveway. Suddenly it dawned upon him that there were a whole lot of cars out there.

"There's nine of them in there."

"Nine?" Giles said incredulously. "Certainly with our new policies and procedures we are being more accepting of close family and friends being made aware of the situation, to provide a support network but… nine?"

"We're all close," Jason said firmly. "If you only told a handful, the whole group would find out. And like I told you on the phone, everyone was there when the first weird thing happened on Friday night. Better off just telling everyone now and getting it in the open."

"Okay then, let's do this," Buffy said, nodding.

Jason opened the door and led the foursome through to the living area where the Wildcats were hanging out. Evidently Chad had found the PS2 equipment because Kelsi and Martha were now battling in a game.

"Hey everyone, this is my cousin Xander, and some umm…."

"Colleagues," Giles supplied.

"Colleagues… of his. This is Buffy, and Giles, and… Dawn," Jason said slowly, avoiding eye contact with the girl. Jason went around the room, pointing out his friends.

"And this… is Gabriella," Jason said pointedly.

Gabriella tensed a little within Troy's grasp, not liking the pointedness of Jason's tone in clarifying who she was.

"Umm…. Gabriella… I think… maybe we should talk about what happened on Friday night…" Jason said slowly.

Sets of eyes looked over to glare at him, indicating to Gabriella and Troy that there had been an agreement among them to _not_ talk about it – which Jason was evidently in violation of.

"Oh, and here I was thinking everyone was just pretending nothing happened," Gabriella said quietly.

"I think that my cousin and his colleagues can help you. I think they understand what is happening. And so… I called them. And that's why they came here."

"Nothing happened, she's just gotten a bit stronger lately and Troy fell off balance and you know what a klutz Chad can be," Taylor said practically.

"What she said," Gabriella said quickly.

"Gabriella seriously… they've come a long way, their… company… is currently based in Scotland. I think… I think you want to hear this," Jason said tactfully.

Gabriella untangled herself from Troy's grasp and scrambled to her feet. "I don't know if I like that you've been talking about me to other people, Jason. You don't have any idea what you're talking about."

Troy also rose to his feet, and touched Gabriella's arm gently. "Ella… maybe… maybe you should listen to what they have to say. Maybe… maybe they do know something. Don't you want to understand?" he spoke softly, almost too quietly for anyone to hear.

Gabriella softened a little, and looked up to face the visitors who were still standing in the entrance way to the room. Buffy was at the front of the group, with Xander, Dawn and Giles flanking her behind.

"So, you work for some science research company right? It's something I ate, some mistake at a lab, food being injected with steroids or something?" Gabriella said.

Buffy suddenly felt the pressure of all of the eyes looking at her. As much as she agreed with Xander's cousin that maybe it would be easier just to have them all know the truth from the beginning, there was something a little strange about telling this girl that her entire destiny had been altered – with an audience.

"Maybe… maybe we should talk in private," Buffy said gently, glancing back to where she'd seen a dining area on her way in.

"You can say whatever you have to say with them here thank you," Gabriella said stiffly, her arms folded across her abdomen, clutching at her stomach.

Buffy sighed. "Umm… okay. Well… you see…"

Buffy had been around to witness Giles doing the reveal to some of the new slayers who had been chosen since the spell. His method was very similar to the method that Buffy remembered being told herself, by her original watcher who had been killed before she moved from Los Angeles to Sunnydale. A long winded speech filled with large and foreboding words. Somehow, she sensed that this girl wasn't going to stick with her long enough to hear a long winded speech.

"Vampires are real. Demons are real. You have been chosen to fight them, and you have been given the strength to allow you to do so," Buffy said bluntly.

The room was deathly silent. Expressions of shock, disbelief, confusion.

With the first sound to break through the silence being laughter.

Gabriella's laughter.

It wasn't jovial laughter, it wasn't her usual light and airy giggle.

It was a laugh that was borderline maniacal. A hysterical laughter.

"Jason, you've always been a funny one but this is just… who are these people? Do you even know them?" she asked. She felt tears spring to her eyes – that was the extent of her hysterical laughter.

Jason cleared his throat. "Gab… this is real."

Gabriella's laughter continued. "Okay, and now I'm laughing because you sound like you are serious."

"This is serious," he said quietly.

"This is just fucking hilarious Jase, is this your idea of some fucking retarded belated April Fools? Or is it some documentary you're filming, with hidden cameras?"

Jason shook his head solemnly. "None of the above, Gabriella."

Giles stepped forward. "Gabriella… I know that this is… so far removed from anything you have ever believed to be real. But you see, this world is older than you realise. Contrary to popular mythology, it did not begin as a paradise. For untold aeons, demons walked the earth. They made it their home… their Hell. But in time, they lost their purchase on this reality, the way was made for mortal animals, for man. All that remains of the Old Ones are the vestiges. Certain magics, certain creatures… and vampires. The books tell us that…."

"I don't care what the books tell you. These books you are referring to are wrong. These books are fantasy. This is the most… the most fucked up joke I have ever heard of," Gabriella said, her body shaking slightly.

Buffy stepped forward, reaching out to grasp Gabriella's arm. "I understand that you don't believe this but… I know that there is a part of you which innately understands. That part of you which is a Slayer. That you are connecting to what we are saying, without needing to see the proof or the logic of it. And I understand that this is fighting against everything you've learnt in school or from your books about science or about religion. But if you would give Giles the chance to keep explaining…"

"I want to hear," Chad said, leaning forward.

Gabriella looked up, her gaze meeting Giles. "Go on."

"The books tell that the last demon to leave this reality, fed off a human, mixed their blood. He was a…. a human form possessed, infected by the demon's soul. He bit another, and another. And so they walked the Earth, feeding. Killing some, mixing their blood with others to make more of their kind."

"Are you seriously here telling us that vampires are real," Taylor said, her scornful tone indicating that there was no part of her which believed a single word that was being spoken.

"Yes. Vampires are real," Dawn spoke up.

"Jason… you… you've seen this?" Kelsi said, her tone imploring.

Her eyes met with Jason's. She knew that there was no way that Jason could lie directly to her, they'd never actually dated but there was nevertheless a certain connection between them.

"Yes," he said simply, with a definitive nod.

"For as long as their have been vampires, there's been the Slayer. One girl in all the world, a chosen one," Giles continued. "The prophecy states: Into each generation a girl is born: one girl in all the world, a chosen one. She alone will wield the strength and skill to fight the vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness; to stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their numbers. She is the Slayer."

"But we changed the prophecy," Buffy took over the explanation. "We faced an evil which, to explain in a nutshell, threatened to wipe out the entire slayer line. And we used magic, we changed the prophecy so that there was no longer a chosen one. We made it plural. We changed it so that there are multiple slayers. So that girls throughout the world have the power to make a difference."

"Girls like Gabriella," Xander added softly.

All eyes in the room drifted to Gabriella.

And Gabriella did the only thing that made sense.

She darted through the room, cutting through the onlooking people, beelining for the front door. She sought escape, she sought release, presently feeling incapable of registering or comprehending any of what she was hearing.

And she ran.

* * *


	4. Make A Better World

**C H O S E N **

**The Insane Works of Dani aka Pandora147**

**Author's Note**

I implore you guys to provide feedback about this. I maintain that I don't write for you guys, that I write for me, that I will write this with or without readers. But if you are interested in reading but just need more information or if there is something in particular that you think could make it better - let me know. If there's something you're enjoying - let me know. This genre is so far removed from my comfort zone and so it's your feedback that is going to guide me.

* * *

**4. Make A Better World**

* * *

_**Previously, on Chosen.**_

"_But we changed the prophecy," Buffy took over the explanation. "We faced an evil which, to explain in a nutshell, threatened to wipe out the entire slayer line. And we used magic changed the prophecy so that there was no longer a chosen one. So that there are multiple slayers. So that girls throughout the world have the power to make a difference."_

"_Girls like Gabriella," Xander added softly._

_All eyes in the room drifted to Gabriella. _

_And Gabriella did the only thing that made sense. _

_She darted through the room, cutting through the onlooking people, beelining for the front door. She sought escape, she sought release, presently feeling incapable of registering or comprehending any of what she was hearing._

_And she ran. _

* * *

"We have to go after her!" Taylor exclaimed.

"Okay I'm going," Chad said, and made a movement toward the door.

"No I should go, I'm her best friend," Taylor argued, grabbing onto Chad's arm.

"I'm her best friend too!" Ryan cut in, hands on his hips.

Chad raised his hand, as though answering a question in a classroom. "I can run faster than both of you combined, so I think that…"

"Uh guys?" Xander said, stepping between the arguing teenagers. "Both Buffy and the brown haired kid already ran after her."

Ryan, Taylor and Chad all looked around, realising that they'd both disappeared.

* * *

Meanwhile, it seemed evident that within Gabriella's newfound Slayer strength, there was also an ability to sprint faster than humanely possible. Troy had immediately dashed after her and even as he was at the bottom of the driveway, she had more than double the distance on him. He felt an arm grab onto him from behind.

"You have wheels here?" Buffy demanded.

Troy nodded. "Yes."

"Then lead the way."

Troy sprinted over to his truck, unlocking the door and then reached over to unlock the passenger side. He turned the key and roared the engine to life. Despite the collection of Wildcat cars parked, he managed to reverse the car and manoeuvre around them all in record time and take off at a dangerous speed down the street.

"Why didn't you just run after her?" Troy asked, his eyes scanning the road. He could see Gabriella's figure just tearing left at the end of the street. He put his foot down harder on the gas.

"Because obviously you want to run after her too. And you might know where she is going if we lose her," Buffy said.

"You don't even know me."

"The fact that you ran after her straight away told me all that I need to know," Buffy said smoothly. "Oh, and your name again would be useful, I am shocking with names."

"Troy."

"Excellent."

He turned left at the end of the street, and found himself getting stuck behind a garbage truck.

"Fuck!" he swore, and quickly overtook the truck before continuing.

"Can you see her?" Troy asked, glancing about wildly.

"Over there, turn right at these traffic lights, she just darted over the road."

"She's going to the park," Troy said, realising her direction. "She has to be."

Between getting caught up at traffic lights and behind slow traffic, Troy wasn't able to quite catch up to Gabriella. But she was going precisely where he anticipated, and just as he came to a screeching halt in the parking lot – parking in the middle of two parking spots – she was tearing into the park.

"Gabriella!" he shouted, as he jumped out of the drivers seat and tore after her, not even locking the vehicle.

"Go away!" Gabriella called back tearfully.

"No! I will not go away! Don't fucking push me away! You came to me yesterday morning, didn't you!" Troy exclaimed.

Gabriella's sprint slowed down, she'd already been slowing down gradually as she'd entered the park. It was as though subconsciously, she wanted Troy to remain within her pace. And now she slowed down to the point where Troy was able to dart in front of her and hold her still. He was panting, struggling to breathe, sweat pouring down his face from the sprint through the park. Gabriella looked like she'd been for a brisk walk.

"Gabriella look at me," Troy gasped, pleading her. His hand came to rest on her cheek, tilting her head to look towards him.

Her eyes were squeezed closed, but then they fluttered open, her shining chocolate gaze boring into his.

"I don't understand any of this and I just… I had to get away… I couldn't… I couldn't breathe," Gabriella whimpered softly.

"I know baby, I know," Troy said, engulfing her into a tight hug.

She pulled back from him slightly, his arms kept holding onto her but her own hands had formed fists.

"Were you… were you listening to what they were saying?" Gabriella exclaimed, her fists thrashing against Troy's chest.

"I know, completely insane," Troy said, managing to contain his wince at the force of her hits.

"I can't… I can't… I can't deal with this… I don't believe it… I just… there is no part of me that fathoms that any of this is real," Gabriella whispered, her voice choked up.

"I know baby, I understand, it makes no sense," Troy said, agreeing with her and attempting to soothe her.

Standing back from the couple was Buffy. She had jogged after them, maintaining her distance. She needed to make sure that Gabriella didn't take off – but she also respected that being told of your change in destiny wasn't easy, and that a few private moments with her boyfriend might be critical to her maintaining a semi calm temperament. Somewhat tentatively, she stepped forward.

"Gabriella… I know that you don't believe me, any of us. But I think that there is going to be a part of you that is going to wonder if it _could_ be true."

"What, the part of me that intrinsically _believes_ this bull shit?" Gabriella retorted.

Buffy nodded. "Yes," she said simply.

Gabriella and Buffy exchanged a stare. In that moment, Gabriella felt an inexplicable connection to the older girl. She felt a certain mutual understanding between them. On the surface, Gabriella didn't believe any of what she was being told. But Buffy was right – deep down, she knew that it was true. Deep down, she knew that even if she ran away, even if she walked away from the entire scenario – that it would plague her. That she would need to know the truth.

And it was that very understanding which scared Gabriella more than anything else.

"You have to prove it to me," Gabriella said, her arms folding across her chest. "Because right now, I very seriously think this is a load of garbage and I am questioning Jason's sanity."

"We can prove it," Buffy said. "We'll take you out patrolling tonight."

"Patrolling?" Gabriella repeated.

"In the cemetery. Hunting."

"Hunting for vampires?"

"That's right. Troy can come too."

Gabriella swallowed. "Okay… okay. Let's do it."

Troy whipped his head to look at his girlfriend in alarm. He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her away from Buffy.

"Are you serious? You actually… you actually want to follow these crazy people into a cemetery at night?" Troy asked incredulously in a hushed tone.

"Troy, if it's as ridiculous as it sounds, then they are going to be the ones who will look like fools," Gabriella hissed. "Why don't we just go along with it and see for ourselves that they are being completely crazy."

"Because I believe in common sense. There's still something weird going on in this area at the moment, and you just don't go wandering around cemeteries at night under regular circumstances!"

"Well… I'm going to go," Gabriella said stubbornly, before adding, "You don't have to come."

"Nuh-uh, there is no way I am letting you go with them alone," Troy said firmly.

"Then you will be coming with us."

Without another word, Gabriella turned back to Buffy. "Okay. We'll both be coming on your little… hunting trip."

Buffy nodded. "Okay then. Why don't we get going then. Troy can drive us back, and you will both need to go home and get changed."

Gabriella glanced down at her outfit. "Why?"

"You should be wearing darker colours. Navy, dark green, maroon, even a darker purple. Comfortable. Something that if it gets stained, it's not the end of the world."

"And so you're suggesting that we're going to come with you on this cemetery field trip, and there will be vampires?" Troy said, with a condescending smirk.

Buffy gave him a small smile. "Look, I know you've grown up in this sheltered little world here, with no idea of what is really going on out there. I get that, because I grew up like that too. Before I was called to be a slayer, I was a perky little cheerleader whose biggest problem was deciding what colour lipstick would go best with my outfit that day. You've obviously seen your girlfriend undergo a weird transformation over the last few days. That alone should be enough for you to open your mind at least that tiny amount to accept that there is a possibility that maybe I'm not just full of shit."

Troy didn't respond, he just folded his arms and stared at the older girl with narrowed eyes. "Come on, let's go. I don't think I parked legally and I don't want to get a ticket."

His arm slipped around Gabriella's waist protectively and he led her back to his truck.

* * *

"Yeah so we dropped her off at home and now this crazy Buffy chick wants us to come out hunting tonight. These people are fucking insane Chad, this whole thing is just fucking bull shit!" Troy was ranting into his cell phone.

"What if it's true?" Chad asked, his tone hushed.

"Are you actually buying this?" Troy asked incredulously.

"I… I'm not saying that I'm buying it but… I'm also saying that maybe, just maybe it could be true. Do you really think that Jason is full of it too? We've known him for years, man."

"Is Taylor there?" Troy asked with an annoyed sigh.

"Yeah, we're all here still hanging out at Jason's," Chad informed him. "Everyone is here."

"Can I talk to Taylor?"

"Umm… I s'pose."

The phone went muffled while Chad covered up the speaker to hand it over to Taylor.

"Troy?"

"Please tell me that you think these people are just as insane as I think," Troy pleaded.

"Of course I think this is insane. As if any of this could actually be true," Taylor said.

Troy breathed a sigh of relief, his suspicions that the practical, logical Taylor would be on his side coming true.

"Thank God I'm not the only one. I even think they've almost got Gabriella believing it. She's agreed that her and I are gonna go like, hunting for vampires with them tonight. She says it's just to prove that they are wrong and that there will be no vampires but… Taylor, this just seems too weird. What if these people are really wack jobs? Is it really safe for her and I to be going into a cemetery with them at dark?"

"I think they're insane but… do you really think they are dangerous? That Giles guy isn't exactly young, Dawn and Buffy are just girls. And that Xander guy, if he's related to Jason…"

"I don't know Taylor but come on, you have to agree that it all just seems insane."

"What are you thinking?"

"I just… I want you guys to come. I said to that Buffy chick that more of you guys should come with us but she said it's not safe to have too many of you with us, because if something happens she can't protect everyone at once. Like some five foot blonde chick can 'protect' me anyway," Troy said, rolling his eyes.

"I'll talk to the others and see what I can do. Do you know if that Xander guy was coming back here? I might… have to embellish upon the truth to Jason. Tell him that we were invited."

"From what I heard, they were going back to their hotel to do some kind of research about something," Troy said. "You should be right."

* * *

It was just after nightfall, and Troy and Gabriella were about to embark upon what felt like the most insane expedition of their lives. After returning home to get changed, Troy had picked up Gabriella and the pair had met the ex-Sunnydale now Scotland crew at their hotel – which was in the older part of town. It had already been decided that only Buffy and Xander would be accompanying the pair on the evening's expedition. Dawn and Giles were remaining at the hotel to conduct some research. And now here they were, just passing through the entrance of one of the oldest cemeteries in town, just blocks away from the hotel.

"So all I want you guys to do is observe. We're giving each of you one of these crosses, which aren't really weapons but sometimes having a cross on you can be the difference between life and death," Xander said.

Troy had to refrain from rolling his eyes at the sight of the crosses that Xander had pulled from his bag and was handing over to each of the pair.

"Troy, we're also giving you this, it's a jar of holy water. In an emergency, aim and throw," Xander continued.

"And this here is for you, Gabriella," Buffy said, a certain twinge of excited pride in her tone.

She pulled out a sleek, sharp wooden stake from their backpack of goodies; and handed it over to the younger girl. Gabriella dubiously took it from her.

"It's a piece of wood," Gabriella said bluntly.

"It's a stake. A stake in the heart of a vampire – that is your goal," Buffy said.

"You actually want me to…"

"Hopefully not," Buffy assured her. "But… if we run into trouble. You have it. And you will surprise yourself in that you know how to use it."

Buffy had already scoped out the cemetery after they'd arrived the previous evening, her body clock was completely out of whack from travelling across the Atlantic. Buffy never had been one for regular sleeping patterns, anyway. She immediately led the group through the modern part of the cemetery, heading for the back fence line.

"See that area over there? There's a lot of crypts, a lot of the larger, old fashioned tombstones. Don't ask me why, but that's typically where you're more likely to encounter vampires," Buffy explained. "So what I'm going to do is get you guys to chill with Xander, and just sit back and observe. I came out patrolling last night and on the basis of the few vampires I slayed, I am confident we will encounter one tonight."

"They will normally be seen at about this time of night, because it's just become dark and they've been stuck inside all day," Xander said.

Troy coughed. "Right. Coz… vampires and sunlight don't mix."

His tone was condescending, he could feel his lips curving into a slight smile as he spoke the words.

"That's right. For someone so sceptical, you seem to know a lot," Buffy said, throwing the boy a glance.

Gabriella was shaking slightly, every sense of her body on complete alert. Every sound, every slight breeze, was causing her to look around in fright. She felt Troy's protective arm fall around her waist, as he pulled her close and pressed a soft kiss to her temple.

"It's gonna be fine," Troy whispered assuringly.

Buffy decided upon her beginning location, the night before she'd spotted a crypt which she was relatively certain was currently the home to a small group of vampires. She deposited Xander, Gabriella and Troy, leaving them to sit quietly among the shadows of a large, leafy tree. Stake at the ready, Buffy began to sleekly begin her route, stalking along in a circular pattern around the eye line of her observers.

She sensed them coming, ducking behind a large tomb stone as she sussed out the situation. She glanced back and motioned to Xander, jerking her head in the direction where she had sensed the impending arrival of two unwanted visitors. Xander held his arm out in front of Troy and Gabriella, who were crouched beside one another, hands adjoined and fingers entwined tightly. He held his finger to his lips, indicating that they needed to remain quiet, before gesturing into the distance. Surely enough, a moment later, two figures appeared. At first too far away to spot anything that was different about them. But as they came closer, the trademark 80's fashion sense became evident. They weren't in game face, which made Troy almost want to call out triumphantly that Buffy and her gang were officially insane.

"Hey fellas! Enjoying your early evening stroll?" Buffy called out to the vampires.

They glanced at each other, smiling evilly, the look in their eyes one that Buffy was familiar with – _dinner._

"We are actually," one of them replied. "Such a beautiful evening out."

"Bet you'll think differently in a minute and wish you'd stayed at home," Buffy said, and without a word of warning, she sprang into action.

In one sleek movement, Buffy succeeded to both perform a jump kick at one of the vampires and a sharp double jab at the other. Both immediately snarled and transformed into game face.

For Gabriella and Troy it was like a slow motion movie moment. Gabriella's fingernails were digging into Troy's hand but he didn't feel a thing. It was like they weren't really there, weren't really watching what they were seeing, they weren't really there. These guys couldn't possibly have suddenly transformed into people with glowing eyes, with razor sharp teeth, with indescribable facial features. This slight, tiny woman could not possibly be successfully in the midst of taking them both on. The truth was that Buffy was prolonging the fight for their benefit, which Xander was well aware of. She was running about the area in front of them, jumping from tombstones, performing backflips, sending the vampires flying across the way time and time again. And then waiting for them to stalk back to her, so that once again she could provide that opportunity for the kids to see exactly what they were – and to see exactly what she could do. Finally, she'd drawn it out long enough. She sent one of the vampires flying backwards and immediately took the opportunity to stake the other one, before turning back to the other one and staking the other.

A slight hacking noise escaped from Gabriella's mouth the moment after the vampires had turned to dust.

Buffy turned back to Troy and Gabriella, dusting her hands against her jeans. The pair were clutching to one another wide eyed. "Do you believe me yet?" Buffy asked, as she walked back over to them.

Before either of them could respond, Xander spotted trouble appearing, trouble appearing in a bad way. Four vampires had appeared seemingly from nowhere, one of them charging right at Buffy.

"Buffy!" Xander yelped.

Buffy looked up a little late, finding herself being knocked off balance by a sudden kick from one of the vampires.

"Stay here," Xander hissed, and immediately jumped up to help. A jar of holy water appeared from his pocket which he immediately threw at the most immediate danger to Buffy.

Neither Troy nor Gabriella could speak, neither could move. A part of both of them was screaming internally that they should be running as far away from the entire scene as humanely possible. But neither of them was capable of moving.

Until they heard the worst thing they could possibly hear in that exact moment.

A scream.

"Get away from her you fucker!" Zeke's yelped exclamation was heard from just behind the crypt.

A second scream sounded, a scream which was unmistakably that of Sharpay Evans.

Gabriella had never been more petrified in her entire life, never been more overwhelmed with the sight that she had just witnessed with Buffy's own encounter. But in that moment where she realised that one of her friends was in danger – Gabriella didn't hesitate for a single moment. She somehow forced herself to move, to run not away from the danger but straight in the direction of it. She didn't register the presence of their friends who had been lurking not far away from the action, didn't take a moment to contemplate what they had or hadn't seen. All that mattered was that Sharpay was presently being held up against a tree by a vampire who was staring at her with a glint in his eye.

It took one running fly kick for Sharpay to be dropped to the ground, for the vampire to stumble off balance. Gabriella didn't even know that she was capable of a running fly kick, but yet some way, some how, she had done it. Her face broke into a smile as Zeke and Chad grabbed onto Sharpay and pulled her back into their cowering huddle.

"Are you okay?" Ryan demanded from his twin.

Sharpay nodded, trembling, but before she could speak, her eyes widened as she spotted what was happening just feet away. Gabriella was now facing off with the vampire who had been so close to taking Sharpay's life. She was frozen, suddenly not having a clue what she was supposed to do. He moved suddenly, swiftly, his fist connecting with her face with such force that she fell backwards, landing hard on her ass, thrown off balance.

Troy had yet to move from his spot crouched between the two encounters that were going on, Buffy and Xander with the other group of vampires and then his friends and girlfriend with the new vampire. He'd turned to watch in horror as she had sprung up from the ground and heroically charged straight over to Sharpay's aid. And now, all he could do was watch in complete and utter paralysing fear as his girlfriend had been knocked to the ground and the vampire was advancing upon his girlfriend.

"Ella!" Troy shouted, and scrambled to his feet.

"Troy, the holy water!" Xander yelped, too far away and too wrapped up in his own fight to do anything other than advise from afar.

Troy looked up in panic and then realised that he still had the glass jar sitting snugly in his pocket. He pulled out the weapon and hurtled it at the vampire with a violent force. The vampire growled as the holy water hit him, steam rising from his skin as it burned his skin. It was enough to throw him off his target – Gabriella – enough to give her time to jump to her feet.

For Troy, it was a sight that he never in a million years would have ever envisaged taking place before his eyes. The look of pure terror in Gabriella's eyes was unmistakable – but within the terror, there was also a glint of empowered determination. She leapt to her feet, pulled the stake out of her jeans pocket and grasped it within her right hand with determination. She was facing off with the vampire, and although a part of Troy felt the instinct to jump in and protect her, to do something, anything, to assist – he knew that she could do it.

A sudden charge and a wild kick to the vampire was Gabriella's first attack. She had never so much as watched the entirety of an action movie, let alone been involved in a fight of any description. Her technique was far from perfect, but instinctively, she knew what to do. And as her foot connected with the vampire with a surge of strength that hurtled him backwards, she too knew that she could do it.

Buffy and Xander had just succeeded in fighting off their own set of vampires and came darting over. Xander went to move forward to assist, but Buffy held out her arm. "Let her do it," Buffy murmured.

Xander nodded in understanding, the two of them ready to leap in if necessary – but only if necessary.

But it wasn't required at all. With her boyfriend and closest friends watching on, Gabriella punched and kicked her way to winning the fight. Buffy could tell the vampire was a fledgling, but that didn't take away from the very real threat that he was imposing. Within minutes, Gabriella gained the upper hand.

"Gabriella, the stake! You can do it!" Buffy shouted. "In the heart! If you miss it, just keep going and…"

As Buffy spoke the words, Gabriella's hand jutted out, with no missing the heart at all. First go, straight in the heart it went; and the vampire exploded into dust and ceased to exist.

Gabriella's stake dropped to the floor, her eyes opened wide at the space in front of her, the space where a threat had been standing just moments earlier and now, there was nothing. It was almost as though she had imagined the entire thing.

"Holy fuck!" Chad's voice rang out through the night air. "This is really all true, isn't it!"

"Too real," Zeke said.

"We need to get out of here," Buffy said decisively in a low voice. "Everyone, we're going back to our hotel, it's only a few blocks from here. Is everyone accounted for?"

Xander glanced around, trying to count the Wildcats.

"They're all here," Jason said, seeing his cousin trying to keep track of his friends. "We can go."

Gabriella was still staring at the blank air in front of her, her breaths sharp and shallow.

"Gabriella, come on, let's go," Xander said, touching the younger girls arm.

"Troy!" Gabriella suddenly said, glancing around wildly.

"I'm right here Ella," Troy said soothingly.

He was just as terrified as she was but in that moment, he could see just how close she was to tipping over the edge into complete hysteria. He couldn't take the time to process himself, he needed to be there for her. His arm grasped around her waist, her own slender arm clutching to his.

In moments where everything is chaotic, where you cease to understand what is going on around you, sometimes all you can do it follow the lead of someone who appears calm and in control. And so the Wildcats, in their frightened, disbelieving, blown away huddle – wordlessly followed Buffy and Xander out of the cemetery and in the direction of the hotel.

Buffy and Dawn had a suite which had been designated as command central. Buffy and Xander immediately led the Wildcats up to the third floor, down the corridor, to the fourth door on the left. Buffy promptly swiped her hotel key card and let them into the room.

Giles and Dawn were sitting at the dining table at a laptop and looked up to see the pale and dishevelled Wildcats.

"Is anyone injured?" Buffy asked authoritatively. "You, the blonde that was attacked?"

Sharpay shook her head. "I will live. I am questioning whether Troy will since he insisted that we all come and nearly die."

"I didn't think THAT was going to happen!" Troy exclaimed defensively.

"So that's why you all rocked up," Xander said, nodding in understanding.

"You didn't ask us to come?" Jason asked, evidently confused. He looked at Troy accusingly. "You said Xander told us to come!"

"Can I sit down?" Gabriella asked in a timid voice, feeling rather faint and shaky.

Troy immediately led Gabriella over to a lounge chair, letting her collapse into the chair. He bent over, his fingers trailing along her cheek. "Does this hurt?" he asked.

Troy was trying to remain focused on task at a time. He didn't have it within him to comprehend any of what had happened. But in that moment, his girlfriend was scared and she was hurt and so all he could do was try to help her. He had to try to maintain some semblance of control.

"She'll be fine. We Slayers heal quickly," Buffy said, trying to assure Troy.

"Oh my God… I need to… I need to wake up…" Gabriella stammered. Her hands were clutching at the arms of the chair, her nails digging into the soft leather. "This… this… can't… it… this…"

Buffy calmly went over and knelt on the floor in front of the younger Slayer.

"Gabriella. This is real. You aren't dreaming," Buffy said gently. "I know it's hard to accept, I understand that. But pretending it's not real isn't going to make it go away, trust me."

"That… that just happened… there were…. There were vampires? And… and… you fought with them?" Gabriella said slowly.

"We fought with them. We," Buffy said firmly. "And just like there is that part of you which knew this was all true today when we told you, and the part of you which knew you had to see it for yourself – there was that part of you that knew tonight that you could do it, that part of you that instinctively knew that you had to do. That part of you which now understands that this is something that you are destined to do."

"If it wasn't for you, your friends might not be okay. They would have been hurt, or worse," Dawn added.

"Well if you want to be technical, if it wasn't for me, then you people wouldn't be here and we would not have been out in a cemetery at night time," Gabriella said quietly.

"Don't say that, don't blame yourself," Troy said instantly. "I'm the one who told them to come."

"We're not here to assign blame," Xander cut in, before any further conversation about that point could take place.

"How do you know that they were vampires?" Taylor said sceptically, still not buying any of it. "I mean… seriously… VAMPIRES?"

"I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that maybe these were just guys with skin conditions on drugs. That maybe they had rabies. That the guy turning to dust was just a trick of light," Buffy said.

"But you all saw that, you saw what happened tonight with your very own eyes. And you can pretend it doesn't exist if you like – or you can accept what you saw and try to do something constructive about it," Xander added.

"I'm sorry, I know that you're all freaking out about this but can I just say how fucking awesome all of this is?" Chad said, with a broad grin.

"You think it's awesome?" Gabriella said in a hushed tone, staring up at Chad who was looking down at her. "You think it's awesome that some… some _vampire_ was holding onto Sharpay?"

Chad shook his head. He sat down on the end of the sofa that was closest to where Gabriella was seated in the lounge chair. He reached over and took her hand in his. "No. I think that it's awesome that we _know_ about all of this. It's not like all of this is new, the world has seemingly always been like this. I think it's awesome that we now know about it, I don't think that going through life without knowing about this stuff is cool. I think that it is awesome that _you_ have the power to do something. How many people talk about wanting to help people and wanting to change the world? And how many people actually have the power to do anything about it?"

As Chad spoke, a small smile was forming on Buffy's face. She glanced back at Giles, who also was looking on approvingly. The room fell completely silent for a moment.

Gabriella dropped Chad's hand, and shakily stood. She turned to Buffy.

"Tell me everything."

* * *

**AN - **Dani bats eyelashes. Review please? -Dani xo


	5. I Wanna Be Sedated

**C H O S E N**

**The Insane Works of Dani aka Pandora147**

**Chapter Disclaimer: **Quoted lyrics are from _I Wanna Be Sedated_ by The Ramones.

**Author's Note – **This chapter is fairly 'exposition' heavy; but once you get through this, I think it's going to make the rest of the story a lot easier to get through; so try to get through it and it'll be worthwhile in the end.

**To those of you who read **_**Someday **_**and are awaiting **_**Someday II**_** –**I would like your opinions on something. Would you rather that you had to wait a bit longer, and then the updates will come more frequently? Or would you rather I just started publishing as soon as possible, in which case the amount of time between updates would be longer?

* * *

**5. I Wanna Be Sedated**

* * *

_**Previously, On Chosen**_

"_I'm sorry, I know that you're all freaking out about this but can I just say how fucking awesome all of this is?" Chad said, with a broad grin._

"_You think it's awesome?" Gabriella said in a hushed tone, staring up at Chad who was looking down at her. "You think it's awesome that some… some __vampire__ was holding onto Sharpay?"_

_Chad shook his head. He sat down on the end of the sofa that was closest to where Gabriella was seated in the lounge chair. He reached over and took her hand in his. "No. I think that it's awesome that we __know__ about all of this. It's not like all of this is new, the world has seemingly always been like this. I think it's awesome that we now know about it, I don't think that going through life without knowing about this stuff is cool. I think that it is awesome that __you__ have the power to do something. How many people talk about wanting to help people and wanting to change the world? And how many people actually have the power to do anything about it?"_

_As Chad spoke, a small smile was forming on Buffy's face. She glanced back at Giles, who also was looking on approvingly. The room fell completely silent for a moment._

_Gabriella dropped Chad's hand, and shakily stood. She turned to Buffy._

"_Tell me everything."_

* * *

The Wildcats settled themselves around in the hotel suite. Gabriella remained seated on the large, plush arm chair she had first been led to upon entering the room. She glanced up at Troy who was standing protectively behind her. She shuffled over and patted the cushion beside her. Troy raised his eyebrows, as though asking without words whether she was sure. Gabriella nodded and gave him a tight smile. Kelsi, Ryan and Sharpay had squeezed themselves onto the small sofa. Sharpay had barely dropped her twins arm since her encounter with the vampire in the cemetery; and he had been equally skittish in ensuring she was safely beside him. Chad had relocated over to one of the arm chairs. Taylor was perched on the arm of the chair. Chad had offered her the seat, which she had declined and instead chose to remain perched with her arms folded somewhat defensively. Zeke, Jason and Martha had all pulled dining chairs over to complete the circle around the coffee table; Zeke's chair being pulled close to Sharpay – he too was feeling protective of the girl who he had been casually flirting with for months.

Giles had disappeared into the twin double room across the corridor which he was sharing with Xander, and returned with a small collapsible whiteboard, markers, some charts and a handful of bulldog clips.

"You brought a whiteboard with you?" Dawn asked, letting out a half snort, half laugh at Giles.

Giles glared at Dawn momentarily, before choosing to ignore her statement and simply set up his aids in front of the group. He rested the whiteboard on the surface of the television cabinet with the board leaning against the television screen; placed his other aids beside him on the floor, and then turned back to the group.

"So we explained to you earlier what a vampire is. Originally derived from the last demon to leave this reality, said demon fed off a human and mixed their blood. Causing a human form possessed, infected by the demon's soul."

"So they were vampires that we saw in the cemetery?" Chad asked.

"They looked just like people, we were watching them," Ryan said. "Those two guys that Buffy was fighting at first. And then they just, like, changed."

Buffy nodded and stepped over to stand along side Giles. "Vampires walk among us. If you're anywhere at night time, or at daytime inside without any sunlight, anyone around you could be a vampire. Anyone. This is one of the strengths of the vampire, he or she can blend in with the people around them as they suss out their pray. You could be at a party and be talking to one, think it's just a pretty girl or a hot guy hitting on you, but really they're just trying to get you alone. And then they change, and they all have the features you saw."

"There are essentially three ways to kill a vampire," Giles continued. "Number 1 - A wooden stake through the heart. Number 2 - Beheading. Number 3 – Sunlight, in a large dose. A small dose will cause them to burn, to light on fire. If trapped in sunlight they will catch on fire and burn, and then explode into ash, just like the first two. Additionally, the cross serves as a repellent, the vampire will snarl, and back off if one is held up to it; if they touch it, their skin will burn."

Xander was standing behind his cousin, but took the opportunity to speak up and add his two cents. "This is similar to the power of holy water which, Troy, you would have seen with that jar we gave you," he added. "A small splash is enough to scald, alike to a human having some type of acid thrown at them. In an extremely large dosage, or if consumed – it can be fatal."

"So. The way I can kill a vampire. Wooden stake through the heart, beheading, push them into sunlight," Chad repeated. "Use holy water and crosses as repellents."

Buffy nodded. "Excellent. Gold star for you. Except for one problem with your statement."

Chad raised his eyebrows. "Huh?"

"You said, the way I can kill a vampire. We aren't telling you all about this so that you can all now go out and hunt. We're telling you so that _if_ faced with a scenario, you know how to protect yourself," Buffy intoned. "There is only one person here who will ever be _actively_ using this information."

"Gabriella," Kelsi said solemnly.

Gabriella was sitting quietly, taking in the information, not yet allowing her expression to change. Giles cleared his throat and continued with his crash lesson.

"A vampire typically kills its victims by biting them, and drinking their blood. This is a vampire's food source, a vampire hunts not only for pleasure but also for sustenance. This doesn't mean that a vampire cannot or will not kill in other ways. They are inherently stronger. They are capable of snapping your neck, of wielding a weapon to kill you in another way. Vampires sometimes will just kill their victims – sometimes, they will mix blood and create more of their kind. They will bite their victim, begin to drink their blood, then create an open cut within themselves, and force the victims mouth down to take some of the vampires blood. The victim will appear to have passed away, but then the following evening some time after sunset, they will rise and exist as a vampire."

"What stops vampires from just like… walking into anyone's house and killing them, then? Like if you're sleeping?" Zeke questioned.

"A vampire needs to receive an invitation to enter a private residence. One invitation, being invited in just the once, is all that it takes to provide a vampire with open license to enter as he desires," Giles explicated.

"This is why you guys should never invite anyone into your homes unless you absolutely one hundred percent know they are not a vampire," Dawn said, not wanting to be left out of the role of teaching the group about the relevant facts. "Even if its daytime, a vampire can like, put a thick blanket over their head, run from the nearest sewer entrance. As long as your doorstep is shaded, it could be a vampire."

"When you gave that explanation earlier, when you were talking about what a slayer is – you said that she fights demons and vampires, didn't you?" Chad asked. "So there are other demons?"

"There are hundreds upon thousands of species of demons, who have various specifications, various characteristics, with different modus operandi, who require different methods to be killed," Giles said. "The majority of them do not have the sunlight aversion, but the majority of them also have a naturally demonic appearance so by nature are nocturnal, as walking around during the day light is problematic in retaining anonymity within a locale."

"So we're dealing not only with vampires, but other demons… shit…" Zeke said, blinking slightly.

"Not just vampires and demons. Witches and magic, trolls, zombies, ghosts, werewolves – it's all real," Xander said bluntly. "Everything you were ever afraid of when you were a kid, everything that you thought might be hiding under your bed or in the closet – it's all real."

A slight snort came out of Taylor's mouth.

Buffy turned to the darker girl, her arms folded across her chest as she glared at her. "I appreciate that you are sceptical, but if you are just going to sit there and think that we're all completely insane, then I would ask you to just leave."

Taylor paused, gripping to the arm of the chair beside her. Chad was looking up at his girlfriend, in disbelief that she was even taking a moment to actually contemplate walking out.

Gabriella spoke for the first time since the long winded explanation had began.

"Taylor, please," she said imploringly, staring straight into Taylor's eyes. "Please… please try."

Of all of the Wildcats, it was Taylor who understood Gabriella's intellectual prowess; who understood just how remarkable her genius mind was. Even Troy wasn't able to fully comprehend just how intelligent his girlfriend was. And so it was Taylor who was in the most similar mind frame to Gabriella. Not only resisting to believing that anything supernatural could be real because it was purely ridiculous, but because it insulted their intelligence. Accepting that this world was true was accepting that the world's brightest individuals were either completely clueless – or that they were involved in a massive conspiracy of maintaining denial.

Taylor sighed. "Okay. Sorry. Continue," she said, a little stiffly.

Buffy's glare moved away from her and softened, turning back to face the group.

"As I explained earlier today, for as long as their have been vampires, there's been the Slayer. One girl in all the world, a chosen one," Giles continued. "A girl who is given the strength and skill to fight not only the vampires, but the demons and other forces of darkness. Buffy here was chosen eight years ago into her calling, at the age of fifteen."

"Last year, we were forced to chance this prophecy, to change the rule. We were facing an evil bigger than any evil we've faced; an evil which threatened to exterminate the entire slayer line. You see, in the past, at a given time there would be the chosen one. Meanwhile there are dozens and dozens of potentials throughout the world, girls with the potential to be activated as the next chosen one. The First – the evil we faced – was a very real threat which aimed to kill all of the potentials and then the slayer. And with no potentials to take the place of the slayer, this would eradicate the slayer line," Giles explained.

"We performed a spell which changed the rule, which changed the way things operate. We made it so that every girl in the world who might be a slayer, will be a slayer," Buffy said. Every time she told this part of the story, her eyes would light up a little. "Every potential is now a slayer. There are constantly new slayers being forged. The way the spell has transpired is that each time any one of our slayers passes, another will be called."

"And that's why Gabriella was called," Jason said, nodding in understanding. For him, hearing this information was only reinforcing what he already knew.

"You mean, I was… because… one of your other slayers died?" Gabriella asked, her eyes wide.

Giles cleared his throat. "Yes. We lost one of the girls on Thursday. Which would have been approximately the time you may have noticed alterations to your strength."

Gabriella nodded slightly, her eyes then diverted away to stare at the carpet.

"So that battle, where you did the big spell - you won, right?" Zeke asked.

"Won is a relative term," Giles said vaguely. "The First is an evil who will never cease to exist. We prefer to think of it as a case of making the First dormant, like a volcano. It may erupt again at any time, our sources are still working to gather information as to whether The First has plans to hit back again. And our neutralisation… it came at a cost. We lost comrades, friends, at the battle in Sunnydale."

"Sunnydale. That town with that giant earthquake thing, right?" Martha asked. "Except… it wasn't an earthquake, was it?"

"No, it wasn't." Giles hesitated, not sure what was appropriate to say. They very rarely discussed the actual collapse of the town, or the incident leading up to the collapse. He glanced at Buffy for a moment.

She cleared her throat and stepped forward. "The final battle basically became a giant… war… between our army of Slayers and a massive army, thousands upon thousands, of these Uber vamps…"

"Turok-hans," Dawn supplied, being technical.

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Turok-hans. We were down in the Hellmouth, and one of our warriors was wearing an amulet which we obtained through one of our sources. This amulet, it performed very complicated magic... it…" Buffy took a breath. "It succeeded in allowing us to defeat the Ub - Turok-hans. Our warrior…. He kept going. Kept using the magic, kept allowing the magics of the amulet to be channelled through him. They were so strong that they literally resulted in the ground moving, in a giant crater being formed and the town collapsing. We… we lost that warrior."

Buffy's eyes were trained at the carpet. She spoke so infrequently of Spike, having gone through the complete details of what she had witnessed once for official records and since then only making very minor references to those final moments in the school basement. She spoke the words frankly, attempting to keep her tone void of the conflicting emotion she felt pulling at her heart.

"This warrior… he was close to you," Gabriella said softly. The words surprised her as they came out of her mouth, but Gabriella just innately knew, sensed the depth of loss that the older girl was feeling.

Buffy nodded, and responded simply, "Yes."

"I'm sorry," Gabriella said, very genuinely.

"Thank you."

The room fell silent for a moment, as though taking a moment in respect of the loss of an individual which the majority of those present didn't even know – but nevertheless could sense the impact of his loss upon the young woman with such a brave front.

It was Troy who was the first to speak. The last words he'd spoken had been directly to Gabriella, gently touching the bruise that was forming on her face and enquiring whether she was okay.

"You're… this is real?" he said slowly. "You're trying to tell me that you people did some spell that made my girlfriend some demon hunter? That… you want her to go and like, risk her life. In a battle where… where you lose people who you define as being warriors? And… where Slayers seem to die when they are young. Like the ones who you lost in the battle. And the one who died for Gabriella to be… 'called'? You're… this…"

"Troy," Gabriella whispered, her hand gripping to his knee. She needed him to stay together, she desperately needed him to remain composure. He could collapse later while they were alone, and they could cry and they could sob and they could protest the ridiculousness of the scenario. But in that moment, she needed him to be strong.

"Can I do it instead of her?" Troy asked, looking straight at Buffy. He lit up slightly, sat up straighter, it was as though he'd been hit with the answer to the problem.

"Troy…" Gabriella said once again, not liking where his tone was going.

"No seriously, this is…. This is… I think you should make it so I do it instead of her."

"It doesn't work like that," Gabriella said simply.

"How would you know, you've known about this for as long as I have?" Troy asked her, before turning back to look at Buffy.

"She knows it because she understands. She's right, it doesn't work like that," Buffy said quietly – both frustrated and touched by his protectiveness of her.

Troy didn't like this response in the slightest. "Well, up until like six months ago you said that there was only one slayer and you changed that. Why can't you just change this?" he demanded, rising to his feet with his arms folded across his chest.

"Troy, man, this isn't achieving anything," Jason said, a little uneasily.

"Excuse me for finding it hard to comprehend that my girlfriend is suddenly some… some… _superhero…_ who is meant to be fighting monsters and putting her life in danger!" Troy's voice was rising in octaves.

Gabriella rose to her feet, clutching at Troy's flailing arms, keeping him still. Her eyes were shining, filled with tears.

"Troy please, can you… please…" her voice cracked, and she swallowed. Her right hand came up to caress his cheek slightly, and she spoke softly. "You can do this later. But now, can you… please… I need you to…"

Somehow, Troy understood her meaning, he understood that she needed him to remain calm if she was going to have any chance of retaining her control. His own hand rose, covering hers and pulling it away, their hands entwining. He leaned down, their foreheads meeting briefly as his eyes closed for a moment, attempting to compose himself. He opened his eyes once again, his cerulean orbs meeting her imploring chocolate stare. In that moment there was only the two of them, there was no audience, the rest of the room ceased to exist. He nodded.

"Sorry," he murmured. "I'm sorry… I just… I…"

"I know. Later."

As the two took their seats once more, if it was possible to believe, they were sitting even closer together. Hands remained adjoined with fingers entwined, Gabriella's foot hooked beneath Troy's leg, she leaned onto him slightly.

"Um… you said before that you were down in the… 'Hellmouth'?" Gabriella said, wincing as she spoke the words. "What… what is that?"

"A Hellmouth is a locale which is fraught with massive supernatural activity," Giles explained. "It's very complicated but for now, just think of it as a hotspot, which draws in a lot of the vampires, demons and creatures that we dealt with. Sunnydale was build upon a Hellmouth, there is another we are aware of in Cleveland, and recent research leads us to believe there is a dormant Hellmouth in Slovenia. In Sunnydale, the focal point of the Hellmouth was situated right beneath Sunnydale High School."

"I don't understand… so you mean… in Sunnydale, weird shit was going on all the time?" Chad asked.

"That's right," Xander confirmed.

"And people just… remain oblivious to it?"

Dawn nodded. "Pretty much."

Giles sighed. "People have a tendency to rationalise what they can and forget what they can't. In the past, the policy of the Watchers Council has always been to keep the identity of the slayer a secret, even from family and friends. Buffy is one of the first instances of a slayer who has had a close support network of family and friends. I believe very firmly that the reason that she has been so successful as a Slayer, is because of that support. Hence why we are making one of our policies to ensure that family and friends are involved in this process. It's crucial really, to ensuring that our Slayers are able to be relocated to Scotland for training purposes and then, eventually, to be deployed throughout the world."

Gabriella's eyes whipped up, staring straight at Giles. She wasn't the only one who had heard it, she felt Troy's hand squeeze at hers a little tighter.

"I'm sorry you just said, relocated to Scotland?" Ryan said, confirming what they'd heard.

Giles winced, realising he'd mentioned that part a little too soon. "Well, in most cases. Yes."

"I'm not going to Scotland. To begin with, my mom wouldn't let me," Gabriella said, rather simply. "You can't force me, can you?"

"We could if you wanted to. The Watchers Council has resources and contacts beyond anything you could imagine. We could organise to get you expelled, have your mother's job be transferred to wherever we want you to be," Giles informed her, before adding, "But we're not in the habit of doing that, not nowadays."

"Well that's good then," Gabriella said, feeling a little relieved. "I mean, it's not long til graduation and so it seems rather impractical. So I'll just be staying here then."

"We'd probably suggest, for now, that you come to Scotland just for a week or so for an intensive training course. We'd then send you back here to finish your schooling. From there, you'd have a couple of options," Giles clarified. "Firstly, you could defer your college course, come to Scotland for a year for comprehensive training, and then at that point we will be deploying groups of Slayers to be stationed throughout the globe, where we could station you near your college of choice. The second option would be that you consider applying to a university in Scotland, the University of Edinburgh is highly prestigious. The application dates will have passed but we can work around that, and particularly with your academic records…"

"Is there a third option which involves me just going on about my life as I had planned?" Gabriella asked quietly. "I mean… you've got all these Slayers throughout the world. Are you forcing people to work for this 'calling'? Can I just… not do it?"

"Do you really think you could do that? Know what it is that you are, what you could be doing… and just sit around doing nothing about it?" Xander asked.

Gabriella didn't respond, but her silence equated to an admission that Xander was right.

"The biggest problem I had was how I'm supposed to tell my boyfriend that I want to go to college on the East Coast and not at the University of Albuquerque," Gabriella said softly.

"Well I kind of figured that was coming," Troy responded gently. "And for the record, I don't want to go to the U of A either."

Gabriella turned to look sharply at him. "Huh?"

"I umm… I know that you were looking at Columbia, and also at MIT. Nothing is sorted yet, but I've been in talks with some basketball recruitment guys at both NYU and also Boston University."

Gabriella's face broke into a smile. "Really?"

Troy nodded. "Really."

For a brief moment, the couple gazed at one another, realising the implication of Troy's statement – realising that there really had been a chance that they could have been near each other after high school. Gabriella's face fell, realising that Troy's efforts had been rendered meaningless.

"Except now, that doesn't even matter," she said slowly, tears pricking in her eyes.

"We have a lot of stuff to go through with you Gabriella, we're really not just going to drag you away against your will," Xander said sympathetically.

Gabriella swallowed. "Right," she said softly.

Zeke's cell sounded with a text message tone, which he promptly pulled out to read.

"Hey guys, my mom just texted me, she says there's been another one of those deaths reported. You know, the wacky serial killer," he said in a hushed tone.

Gabriella looked up sharply, seeing Buffy and her colleagues exchanging glances. Dawn moved over to the dining table, and began to click away at the laptop immediately.

"It's supernatural, isn't it?" Gabriella queried softly. "That's why you're _all_ here. Surely all four of you don't come every time you go somewhere in the world to collect one of your new Slayers."

"We don't know for certain, but we have evidence which suggests that they may be something brewing in this area, yes," Giles informed her.

"They found the body just today," Dawn informed the others. "So tomorrow night…"

"We head to the morgue," Buffy finished, and then turned to Gabriella. "And you will be coming with us."

* * *

A Ferrari GT went flying along the Interstate 40, heading east. The window was down, the drivers arm was hanging out the window with a cigarette twirling between his fingers. The moonlight bounced against his platinum blonde hair.

The GPS began to beep, indicating that after over 650 miles of just following the road, exit 157 B was approaching. The occupant of the vehicle had his own personalised compilation of music blasting, and as he followed the directions, sang along to the smooth sounds which emitted over the speakers.

"_Twenty-twenty-twenty four hours to go I wanna be sedated  
Nothin' to do and no where to go-o-oh I wanna be sedated  
Just get me to the airport put me on a plane  
Hurry hurry hurry before I go insane  
I can't control my fingers I can't control my brain  
Oh no no no no no" _

It was midnight when the Ferrari turned onto Central Avenue and the driver spotted the designated location over on the right. He smoothly pulled in at the hotel, parking in the temporary bays out the front. The man flung the door open, his black leather coat pooling around his slim figure. He stared back at the vehicle in admiration.

"Still partial to the old DeSoto with the black paint splashed all over the windows myself, but I s'pose the Poofter's fancy Ferrari with the sun block out windows'll do." He turned around, taking in the sights around him. "So this is Albuquerque. Bit different to Los Angeles, ain'it?"

* * *

**Author's Note**: If you're not into Buffy and literally have no idea who this platinum haired character is; do yourself a favour and go to Google Images and search for "James Marsters and Spike". Not only does Spike equal Thud; but I totally heart James, he is a truly wonderful actor and musician and I'm melting into a puddle of fangirlness just typing this. The fact that I've found a way to write a story with both Troy and Spike in the same room at the same time is just making me squeal with glee. Maybe Harry Potter could make a guest appearance, then we'll all have all of Dani's favourite blue eyed boys together at once…


	6. In The Morning When We Wake Up

****

**C H O S E N**

**The Insane Works of Dani aka Pandora147**

**Author's Note: **I totally spaced out last chapter and forgot to thank the wonderful ladies of ZA Angels dot com for featuring _Chosen _as FFotW last week! Totally unexpected I tell you, given that this is just my random crazy muse niggling at me story. So yes, a huge thank you and I'm very much so humbled by the gesture. Speaking of ZA Angels, if anyone enjoys a) writing and b) Christmas; the girls are running a Secret Santa Fic Exchange through the ZA Angels Forum which I highly recommend you check out. Either link to it from the main page, zaangels dot com; or go straight to zaangels dot com slash forums. :-)

* * *

**6. In The Morning When We Wake Up**

* * *

When Troy Bolton was seven years old, his mother Lucille took him to see a child psychologist. He'd been having the same recurring nightmare for two months. Two months of being woken up, night in, night out. It was a dream about an eight foot tall, slimy monster with horns and red eyes and claws. In the dream the monster would be hovering over Troy's bed. He would speak in a demon language but Troy would understand the meaning.

Kill. Exterminate. Die.

The psychologist poked and prodded, and decided that Troy was simply a kid with an overactive imagination; the dreams weren't a symptom of some deeper trauma. When it had first started happening, Lucille would indulge Troy and allow the little boy to slip into bed with his parents. During the weeks following the sessions with the psychologist, the routine would continue, with six year old Troy fleeing to his parents room, banging and crying at the door. Jack Bolton would patiently check Troy's room, and ensure that 'the coast was clear.' Per the instructions of the professional, under no circumstances were Lucy and Jack allowed to let Troy remain with them.

Three weeks and four days after the sessions at the psychologist; Troy slept through the entire night for the first time in almost three months. He didn't have the nightmare again.

It was Sunday night. He felt like the day had been going forever. It seemed so long ago that he'd been at Gabriella's convincing her to hang out at Jason's. Just half a day ago, they'd been a whole lot more innocent and naïve.

Eleven and a half hours later and his world had been turned upside down. Vampires. Demons. Stakes. Holy water. Crosses. Witches. Spells.

Superhero girlfriend.

Eleven and a half years after six year old Troy had faced his demons – he'd learned that his nightmare wasn't quite as irrational as his parents had thought.

He'd watched Gabriella fight that vampire with that glint of power in her eye, the authority within her moves.

He'd watched Gabriella come close to falling apart in the aftermath of realising just what she had done – and what she had become.

And now, Troy was back in his room. The same room where he'd woken up every night for two months, three weeks and three nights crying about the monster which was towering over him. He'd dropped Gabriella at home about forty five minutes earlier. A hole had nearly been worn in his bedroom carpet as a result of the subsequent half hour plus of pacing backwards and forwards. He slipped out of his room and into the living area where his mother was sitting in the living area.

"Night mom," Troy said casually.

Lucille Bolton glanced up, seeing her son in his boxers and a wife beater. "You're going to bed early."

He forced a smile. "Tired, that's all."

"You look tired. Didn't you sleep well last night?"

"Not really," Troy confessed. "Hopefully it'll be better tonight."

Lucille nodded. "Well good night then."

Troy turned to head back to his room, but impulsively turned back around. "Mom? I love you," he said quietly.

Lucille's face crinkled up in slight surprise, but she didn't say anything other than a simple, "Love you too, sweetheart."

When he was six, Lucille had stroked Troy's hair comfortingly and told him that the monsters weren't real. She'd sent his father in to fix the problem, to protect him.

In that moment, Troy wanted nothing more than to curl up with his mother and tell her about the demons and the monsters. And to have her make it all go away.

Instead, he returned to his room and immediately grabbed his tracksuit pants to pull on over his boxers. He pulled on his socks and sneakers, grabbed a hoodie and shoved his cell phone into his pocket. He then mussed up his bed covers and turned toward the white French doors which led to the backyard. Quietly as possible, Troy opened the doors and stepped outside. He then hesitated, turned around and picked up the cross which he'd tucked beneath his pillow.

* * *

Gabriella was sitting at her desk. She was wearing one of Troy's old t-shirts and a pair of sweat pants. She was working on her English paper which was due at the end of the week. Mrs Perry was a scary old bat and Gabriella had no doubt that she would under no circumstances accept 'emotional weekend of life altering revelations' as an excuse for not completing this assignment.

Gabriella had sensed Troy's arrival, sensed that he was standing on the balcony behind her. But she didn't react. He didn't knock, he didn't try to open the door. She calmly finished the paragraph that she was working on, before spinning around in her chair and making eye contact with him. She stood up and went over to open the door.

"Why didn't you knock?" she asked softly.

"I liked watching you. It was so… normal. I don't know how you could do it."

"It's escape. I'm pretending everything is normal. I know it's not, but somehow it's comforting anyway," Gabriella responded. "Can you just give me a minute? I really want to finish up this next paragraph, I just got a train of thought."

Troy nodded. "Sure."

He slipped off his sneakers and socks and nestled himself back on Gabriella's bed. She had a Cosmo magazine on her bedside table which he picked up and idly flipped through, not particularly paying attention to a single thing on the pages. Gabriella had soft music playing in the background, he knew it to be her 'study' playlist on her Itunes. The tip taps of her fingers flying across the keyboard stopped, and she rose from her desk and came to sit cross legged before him on her bed.

"I hoped you would come," Gabriella confessed. "I wanted to talk about… stuff. But when you dropped me off you just sorta said bye and left and so I thought maybe you just wanted time to process."

"I thought that's what I wanted too. I paced around for like a half hour, trying to sort through my thoughts. But none of it was making any sense. And so… here I am."

"I'm glad you came."

"I'm sorry about before at their hotel," Troy apologised quietly. "When I started to lose it."

"Don't apologise for that! I should be apologising to you for reacting how I did, it was selfish of me. I just… I was at that exact same point of hysteria and I knew if you broke then I would break and I didn't want to break."

"I don't know how you're not falling apart right now," Troy confessed hoarsely.

"Maybe it's because of what Buffy keeps saying about why I just understand it all. Somehow it's helping me to cope with it."

"This is day 1 of this, you know? I mean, I get that you've been feeling different for a few days and really it was Friday when we really realised something was up. But of actually knowing the situation, it's day 1. There's more to come, more information, more hunting, more… more everything. It's just gonna keep getting bigger," Troy said.

"How are you feeling now? Better than you were earlier?" Gabriella asked.

Troy took a deep breath. "I feel numb. I feel like… I don't know how to begin processing it. I keep latching onto little bits – like hearing that other Slayer died the other day. Or that warrior who died in the battle. Or them talking about Scotland. I can only deal with one bit of information at a time. Coz the whole thing…. It's just too big to wrap my brain around."

Gabriella shuffled forward slightly, and took Troy's hand in hers. "Troy? If this… if all this is too much for you…" she paused, and took a deep breath before saying the following words. "I'll understand if you can't be a part of it. If you need to walk away from it."

"Walk away from it?" Troy repeated. "You mean… from you?"

"Well… I understand that it wouldn't be like that," Gabriella said softly. "But if that's what is necessary…"

"Ella, babe," Troy said, his tone soft and imploring. "Nothing is too much where you are concerned. I'm freaked out of my fucking mind, I won't pretend otherwise. But walking away is simply not an option."

Gabriella's chocolate eyes glassed over, her bottom lip trembling slightly. "Are you sure?" she whispered. "You think that now, but if you think it might get too much, I'd rather you back out now. Because… because once I go into this with you, I don't think I'm gonna be able to cope if you suddenly up and leave."

"You're stuck with me forever, I'm afraid," Troy declared resolutely.

She moved over to him, propelling herself to nestle into his side. Troy pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. She tipped her head up, allowing their lips to gravitate together and linger in a sweet, comforting kiss.

"I was so scared earlier," Troy confessed. "In the cemetery. And you know, it wasn't even the whole seeing a vampire thing that scared me. What scared me more than anything was that in that moment in time when you were in danger – I froze. It scares me looking back and thinking that I just… I couldn't do anything. I couldn't think of what to do. If it had just been you and me out there, if Xander hadn't called out and told me to use the holy water… I don't… I don't know…"

"Hey," Gabriella said soothingly. "I believe so whole heartedly that if that had been the scenario, you would have found a way to help."

The couple fell silent, Gabriella nestled further into Troy's side, a leg entwined with his and her arm snugly clutching to his waist.

"I keep thinking this has to be a dream. It just can't be real, how can any of this be real?" Troy breathed. "We're gonna wake up tomorrow and this is all gonna go away."

"Troy?"

"Mmm?"

Gabriella swallowed. She wanted to agree with his fantasy world of wishing it were a dream. But she couldn't. "We're gonna wake up tomorrow, and it's going to be real," she said quietly. "It won't have gone away."

"That's what I'm afraid of."

"And when we wake up…" Gabriella paused. "I want you right here with me. And then we can face this together."

Troy disentangled himself from her arms and wordlessly crossed the room to her door. He flicked the lock closed, switched off the light, locked the balcony door and then dropped his sweat pants to the floor and peeled off his wife beater. Gabriella shimmied out of her own sweat pants and tossed them aside, and then pulled the comforter cover back. Troy slipped in behind her, her form moulding into his so naturally, his arm encircled protectively around her waist.

The rules about parents knowing where they were, adhering to behavioural expectations, not being in each others room with the door shut, abiding by a curfew.

These rules were discarded.

The rules had been taken away the moment that reality had come crashing down with word that monsters and demons were real.

The rules didn't apply any longer, not to them, not now.

* * *

Troy woke up at 5:30am, his body subconsciously pulling him from his slumber. Gabriella stirred as he eased himself out of her bed.

"Troy?" she murmured.

He knelt on the floor beside her, and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. "Go back to sleep, you've got another half hour."

"Is it all still real? Was it a dream?" she asked sleepily.

He swallowed. "Unless it was a very vivid dream which we both had… I'm thinking it's real."

"Damn."

"Yeah."

"Are you gonna go home now?"

Troy nodded. "As long as they didn't hear me leave, I can do my usual trick and just say I woke up early to go for a run."

"Okay."

"I'll see you soon, all freshly showered and ready for school."

"Mmm, can't wait."

* * *

Spike was prowling around in the hotel room. The night before had been refreshing. He'd passed through the south route crossing the great American nation once or twice in his years, but he'd never spent a lot of time in New Mexico and had never stopped in Albuquerque before. Spike enjoyed arriving in a new town, exploring, gaining his bearings, sussing out the twenty four hour food places that may sell fried onion flowers.

But now, he was trapped inside. Bloody daylight. He'd been sent to Albuquerque with a specific mission.

He'd spent over a hundred years as an evil vampire, doing unthinkable evil. A brief period of that time as a part of his little fucked up family – with his sire Drusilla, with Drusilla's sire Angelus, with Angelus' sire Darla. Then Angelus had been different, and Darla abandoned them – leaving just him and Dru. The way that Spike wanted it from the beginning.

Life had a funny way of turning out in ways never anticipated.

Buffy had been his arch nemesis, the one person he wanted to kill more than anyone else.

There's sometimes a fine line between love and hate.

Spike never would have anticipated that he would wind up in a search for redemption. Never anticipated falling in love with Buffy. He'd fought to have his soul returned so that he would be worthy of her. And then in one of life's true ironies, was killed in battle a year later. Wasn't that the ultimate sacrifice of a true champion? To give ones life for the greater good? He'd known that, it had been his decision to continue to channel the power of the amulet through him. He could have torn it off, he could have ran away. But he'd remained behind. And been there til the end.

Sometimes, Spike didn't understand why he'd been brought back. Some higher force must have somehow identified that Spike in his reformed, souled state had more to contribute, had a role to play in helping people and in the war against evil. More than what he'd done in just that year.

There was always more to be done.

Spike didn't really understand why he kept hanging around in Los Angeles. Sure, Los Angeles was where he'd been brought back to, and magic had bound him to remain in the area for a while. But he'd moved beyond that, and now he was just hanging around. Angel annoyed the hell out of him. Not long after Spike had been sired, his stupid granddaddy had gone and killed a gypsy girl. Her family retaliated, and had a curse put upon him. The gypsies had forced a soul into him, made it so that Angel would live his life immortally, with a soul, with the guilt of knowing the pain he had inflicted upon so many innocent lives for hundreds of years.

Angel clung to his soul like it made him a better person.

Sure, the vampires had a lot in common. They both had souls. They were of the same blood lineage. They were both now in the business of seeking redemption.

They were in love with the same woman.

Spike knew that they were different. Angel's soul had been forced upon him. Spike had fought for his. Spike had sought redemption when he didn't have a soul. Angelus – the unsouled version of Angel – was the epitomy of evil.

But they had one more thing in common.

Back so long ago, Angel had walked away from Buffy. He'd acknowledged that he couldn't provide her with the life he deserved.

Spike had gone to the other side of the world to regain his soul to make himself worthy for Buffy. He'd died a true champion, somehow had miraculously been brought back, had the ability to go seek her out – and yet he wasn't. He'd been hell bent upon finding her when the magics had kept him in Los Angeles. But now that he was free to go where he pleased, he was staying put.

Now that there were so many new Slayers running around, for the first time Buffy would legitimately have a chance of having a somewhat normal life. To settle down, to fall in love, to raise a family. To walk in the light.

Spike couldn't provide any of those things.

And so just like Angel had so many years ago, Spike was prepared to walk away from his love.

For her.

And so he clung to the mission. If working with Angel was a way to help, then he would work with Angel.

And so he sat in his hotel room with the black out blinds drawn, awaiting the sun to go down.

He picked up the television remote, hoping he could be distracted with some sort of mindless drivel. He flipped through the channels, a bright smile breaking out onto his face as he spotted his favourite show. He collapsed into the arm chair, kicked his feet up onto the table, and turned up the volume.

"Passions! A classic."

* * *

The East High cafeteria was buzzing with noise. The football team were tossing a ball around inside; the debate team was rehearsing speeches; a couple of band members had their instruments out and were jamming; the cheerleaders were writing – and rehearsing – a new cheer.

"Sounds like the winter musical is going to be really great," Taylor said.

Sharpay nodded excitedly. "It is! Bigger than ever! It's going to be the event of the year."

"Event of the year?" Jason scoffed. "Please. We had just about the entire school come to our championship game this year…"

"And that's meant to be an accomplishment? It's free. And right after school. When we get people to come to our shows, they actually pay money and come in their own time at night," Sharpay pointed out.

"I still think the Prom is going to beat out both the championships and the winter musical as event of the year," Martha pointed out wryly.

"Well that's a given," Sharpay said, rolling her eyes. "Oohh, did I tell you about the prom dress I was looking at?"

The Wildcat table was filled with a forced brightness – and avoidance. However the moment that Gabriella and Troy appeared from the food line, they fell silent.

"Gee guys, don't go quiet on my account," Gabriella said in a forced lightness. She set down her tray beside Chad, and Troy filed in automatically sit beside her.

"It wasn't like that," Kelsi said, trying to assure her friend. "We were… just…"

"Avoiding talking about everything that happened yesterday like we all have been doing all day? Except that now I'm here it's like a reminder of it all?" Gabriella prompted.

"Kind of," Zeke confessed.

"Please go back to avoiding talking about it," Gabriella requested. "That's what I've been doing after all."

Gabriella pulled a pencil and a print out of her English essay from her bag. She intended to begin to go through what she had written so far, and make notes in the columns of things she needed to change or expand upon.

"But should we be avoiding talking about it?" Chad asked. "Is that normal?"

"I feel like we have this big secret that no one else knows about," Kelsi said quietly.

"That's because we do," Ryan said gently, his hand caressing his girlfriends thigh comfortingly.

"True."

"Well, not necessarily," Martha pointed out. "Other people could know. Jason knew about it and we didn't know that he knew."

"It's not exactly something you bring up in every day conversation," Jason pointed out.

Gabriella had been eating yoghurt with her left hand, her right hand was clutching onto the pencil and tapping on the cafeteria table. At first it had been a steady, quiet tap. But it had escalated and now it was a loud, fast tapping.

"Babe…" Troy said quietly, enclosing her fidgeting hand with his.

"Sorry," she said softly.

"Are you okay?" Chad asked her quietly.

Gabriella swallowed. "Are people looking at me?"

She was clenching onto the pencil between her fingers, not even realising how hard she was clenching at it. Suddenly, the pencil broke in half, one of the pieces flying across the table and landing in Ryan's beans.

"That's cool, I wasn't gonna eat them anyway."

"I need to get out of here," Gabriella said abruptly. "I feel… I need… just… to be away."

"Ella?" Troy questioned.

"I need to go for a run or… something. I'll see you guys later."

Gabriella grabbed her water bottle, snatched up her essay and satchel, and darted away – leaving the pencil fragments behind. Troy waited about two point five seconds before darting after her. He caught up with her in the corridor just outside the cafeteria, and grabbed her arm to stop her from walkig.

"Ella, you're shutting me out again."

Gabriella sighed. "I wasn't just saying what I said, I do really feel like I need to go for a run or something. I feel all… like I have pent up energy and if I don't do something with it then I might just explode. I don't know if it's just the stress or if this is a part of the new power or what. But that's how I feel and since we have a free period after lunch, that is what I am going to go do. Run around the track. Or… something."

"I get that," Troy said sympathetically. "That's how I feel sometimes, like in the lead up to a big game or something. But babe, if you go run around the track at the speed that you can evidently now run at, the track coach is going to be hunting you down and making you join the team."

He was right. Damn him for being right. "Well do you have a better suggestion?"

"I would suggest that we go have wild kinky sex in the utility closet…"

"Troy!" Gabriella exclaimed, and glanced around to make sure no one had overheard.

"But since you have your girly problem of the month, that's not going to be an option."

"It freaks me out when you know my cycle, Bolton," Gabriella said under her breath. Her hands fell to her hips accusingly. "And what, you think that's the only reason I wouldn't do what you just suggested?"

"Well, I recall receiving a blissful blow job in one of the dressing rooms in the auditorium last month, so is it such a leap to assume wild kinky sex in the utility closet would be on the table?"

"You're not helping with the situation by talking about wild kinky sex."

Troy took her by the hand. "Come with me."

They took a detour by his locker to grab a t-shirt, and then headed for the gym. He led her around the side to the work out area. There were a few guys using the treadmills and weights. Troy led Gabriella into a small room which was off the workout area – a room with a bunch of mats, and a punching bag. He locked the door securely behind them.

"Will this work for you?"

* * *

On Sunday night/Monday morning, Buffy had been out patrolling late, and hadn't actually gone to bed until almost dawn. She hadn't been going out patrolling regularly since being in Scotland. A part of her missed it, and had loved being back out there, alone, just her and the night air and the vampires.

Back in Sunnydale when she would patrol, she would patrol until late and then only get a few hours sleep. But Buffy slept soundly for the first time in months and months. There was no logical explanation for it – maybe it was something in the New Mexican air. She felt like there was some kind of comforting presence near by – which was also illogical, because there was no one in the area that she didn't normally have around her in Scotland. She woke up around 1pm, and came out to the living area to find Xander, Giles and Dawn hard at work.

"Morning," she greeted them, dressed in her fuzzy yummy sushi pj's.

"Afternoon," Xander clarified."

"Big sleep for Buffy, good work," Dawn praised her sister.

"I never do that, do I? I feel bad, you should have woken me earlier."

"Dawn said you were out late patrolling," Giles said.

"Yeah. Quite a few vamps as well, about five," Buffy said. "Wasn't able to get any information though, none of them were particularly talky. How is the research going?"

"So so. I think after this trip to the morgue tonight, we can clarify a few of our thoughts, know for certain whether these deaths are vampire related," Giles said.

"Still planning to bring Gabriella?" Xander asked.

Buffy nodded. "I'll call her after school and make arrangements."

"Can you tell her to _not_ bring any of her friends along?" Giles specified. "I'm all for having a support network, but we really cannot be baby sitting a bunch of teenagers."

"It is rather difficult to be stealthy with a bunch of curious adolescents lurking around with you," Xander said.

Buffy smirked. "Now you now how I felt when you and Willow used to insist upon coming patrolling with me."

* * *

Troy had never paced this much in his entire lifetime. He was currently pacing because he was annoyed. Gabriella had been relying on him heavily over the last few days. And now, she'd called him after school to inform him that Buffy had called her about the morgue trip – and that Buffy had specified no tag alongs. Hadn't Buffy requested his presence the night before? Why was he now not deemed worthy of being invited along? A part of Troy's brain couldn't help but think that after his freezing up in the very moment when he'd needed to act, that Buffy and Xander had decided he was a liability. Troy Bolton was not a liability.

It was sunset. Buffy had told Gabriella that she'd come by Gabriella's house just after sunset.

Troy knew what he had to do.

He tossed a pointy piece of wood, a jar of holy water and a cross into a backpack, along with a pocket knife, an extra jacket, a pair of binoculars and a bag of candy. He shoved his cell phone and wallet into his pockets and swiftly headed to his truck.

He immediately drove toward Gabriella's. She lived on a street with a cul de sac, so he knew that Buffy could only approach from the one direction. He drove straight past Gabriella's and parked up the street at the dead end section. He then had to wait. Wait until a foreign car pulled up.

It didn't take long, in fact it was only ten minutes later when a black SUV pulled up. Troy quickly grabbed the binoculars, noting that Xander was driving. Buffy jumped out of the back seat and examined a sheet of paper she was holding onto, and the number painted brightly on the letterbox. She went to the door and within a minute Gabriella appeared. The two young women headed down the driveway back toward the car. Gabriella was dressed in black, wearing black skinny leg jeans and a black t-shirt. After the girls got inside, the SUV promptly began to do a three point turn. Troy roared his engine into life. He was ready for action.

* * *

"So, can you explain this to me? Why we're going to the morgue?" Gabriella asked from her place in the backseat of the car.

Giles was seated in the front passenger seat, and glanced around at the newest Slayer. "We know from our studies that there is increased vampire activity in this area since the collapse of Sunnydale. We aren't certain if it is random, if its just a result of the supernatural spreading out across the nation. Or if there is something bigger at play. The first step is discovering whether the victims of these killings have been turned," he explained.

"So we go to the morgue, to firstly confirm the cause of death. We will know just from looking at the markings whether it was in fact a death at the hands of a vampire," Dawn elaborated, from her place behind Giles.

"And then we wait," Buffy said simply. "Wait and see. If the vampire did in fact turn her, then she will rise tonight."

* * *

Troy's backpack was securely over his shoulders. He was clutching to a cross. Xander had pulled over to park a few blocks away from the address Gabriella had told him earlier. Troy quickly had to pull up also, parking on the opposite side of the road. He darted across the busy street of traffic just to keep up. They were cutting through a park, why Troy had no idea. If they'd just stuck to the footpath, then _he _could have cut through the park and hidden among the coverage of the trees.

He trailed along behind them, darting from tree to tree. He would dash to the next tree, stand behind it, peek behind the tree and check that they were still heading in the same direction. He would then dart from the tree and to the next.

A plan that worked quite well – until Troy almost blew his cover. He trod on a tree branch which he'd failed to see on the ground, the twigs crunching beneath his sneaker. Troy winced and ducked behind the closest tree. There were a handful of other people around in the park, out running in the cool early evening air. So none of the group Troy was stalking seemed to hear him, or if they heard him, they didn't think otherwise. They emerged from the park to the footpath, across the road from the destined location. Troy paused and watched with his binoculars as Buffy gestured to Xander and Giles in one direction, and then to herself, Dawn and Gabriella in the other direction. Troy suspected that she was instructing them to check out the perimeter and each go in a different direction around the building. He quickly made the decision to follow Dawn, Gabriella and Buffy on their side, panning out wider. The morgue was on a leafy, treeish block of land, and he managed to find large tree to hide behind as the fivesome reconvened. He wanted to hear what they were saying but couldn't quite make it out. So he emerged from behind his tree to try to get a little closer.

And then Troy ever so gracefully tripped over a tree stump, stumbled and fell into a bush.

"Fuck!" Troy swore, clutching at the toe he had stubbed.

Five seconds later, he felt a hand grasping his arm. Troy glanced up sheepishly to see Buffy looking at him questioningly. "Oh good. It's you," she said sarcastically, and dragged him out from behind the bush. "Look what I found," she announced to the others.

"Troy!" Gabriella gasped quietly.

Troy gave her a small wink but then turned to look sheepishly at the others. "Err… hello all," Troy said uneasily.

"What the hell do you think you are doing lurking in the bushes near the morgue?" Buffy demanded.

"I'm uh…. Just… out for a stroll. It's a beautiful evening, isn't it?" Troy said lightly.

"Out for a stroll by the morgue?" Xander asked, raising his eyebrows.

"That's right," Troy confirmed.

"With a cross in your hand?" Dawn asked.

"Well, we learnt a lot yesterday. I will now be taking a cross with me everywhere I go. I also have a jar of holy water, a pocketknife and a stake in my backpack," Troy said, somewhat proudly.

"In your backpack? That's not very useful. If you'd been jumped, were you going to ask the vampire to wait patiently while you fished around to get your weapons out?" Buffy asked.

Troy didn't say anything, but he did sheepishly swing the backpack around to retrieve out the stake and holy water to place into his pockets. He noticed Gabriella was shivering a little.

"Are you cold? I brought you a jacket."

"You brought her a jacket? When you were just out for your stroll by yourself?" Buffy asked, rolling her eyes.

Troy opened his mouth and then closed it. "Shit."

"Oh for goodness sake, just keep up, do what you're told and don't get in the way," Giles said, rolling his eyes.

Troy grinned and pulled out the jacket to hand to Gabriella. She gratefully accepted the hoodie and zipped it up.

"I also brought candy," Troy said to her quietly.

"Oh, what kind?" Dawn asked, her interest piqued.

"Sour worms."

"Ohh I love sour candy!" Dawn exclaimed.

"Me too!" Gabriella said, smiling at the less scary of the Summers' sisters.

Gabriella spontaneously gave Troy a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you," she said softly.

"You're not mad at me for stalking you?"

"Why do you think I told you all about it? I mean… I didn't just tell you that we were going to the morgue. I said that Buffy said she would pick me up just after sunset, that they'd rented a vehicle, I told you the address. I wanted you to tag along."

"You could have just…" Troy had been about to say _asked_ when it hit him. "You were testing me! You… you wanted to know if I was just feeling obligated or… if I really wanted to be in this with you."

Gabriella hung her head slightly, feeling a little guilty. "Maybe," she confessed. "Are you mad?"

Troy paused. "Did I pass the test?"

"With flying colours."

Another rustle sounded in the bushes nearby. Buffy stopped and held up her arm, pausing and silencing the group. She stepped out, listening hard, sensing the air around her.

"There's something out there," she said in the lightest whisper. "Wait here."

Buffy crept lightly in the direction of the sound she had heard.

And came face to face with someone who had been plaguing her dreams and her nightmares since the night of the collapse of Sunnydale.

"Buffy," Spike breathed.

"Spike," Buffy said weakly.

And Buffy fainted.

* * *

**Author's Note**: Pretty please with cherries on top leave a review if you're reading this, even if all you say is 'good!' Just trying to determine if people are still into this. :-) But I also welcome anything more specific than 'good' in your comments hehe. -Dani xo


	7. I Must Be Dreaming

**C H O S E N**

**The Insane Works of Dani aka Pandora147**

**Author's Note: **

I have become one of the authors who crap me off so much. It's been ages since I updated this! _Ducks at the stuff being thrown. _Umm yeah… _The Someday Trilogy: This Moment _is my priority, I think the majority of you who read this (at least, those who review) also read Someday so hopefully you are understanding of this. But my muse for this just took a small vacation over to Someday land and I kept coming to write this and just being so, so, so blank which is scary because I've never experienced that kind of writers block and I suddenly have a sudden empathy for people who experience this.

**For those familiar with Angel: the Series – **so I have concluded that this is set post Angel Season 5 Episode 11 – Damage. This is the episode with Dana the crazy Slayer where Andrew is in LA. Let's pretend that Angel happened up until Damage, and then from there its just all loose – I'm not going to go into Angel characters massively, but if I ever wind up bringing them in, don't be thinking 'hang on, isn't Angel off befriending the Circle of the Black Thorn now, he can't be in Albuquerque!'

**Also, a Buffy tibbit – **Spike and Giles are British. The rest are American. And I am Australian. I am doing my very, very, very best to emulate the speech patterns of these really diverse characters but its not very easy. But yeah… so when I'm having Spike and Giles use words like 'prat' and 'git' and 'Berk' – no, I'm not British. They are. Haha.

* * *

**7. I Must Be Dreaming**

_Just in my mind_

_Not in real life_

_I must be dreaming_

'Bleed (I Must Be Dreaming)' Evanescence

* * *

Buffy was the epitome of strength and courage. She'd led the charge into the Hellmouth that fateful day, led a team of shit scared girls and somehow instilled within them that they had a chance in hell. She'd dealt with the death of her mother and proceeded to raise her younger sister all alone, with nothing more than the occasional cheque in the mail from their father. She had technically died twice – defying the odds to be brought back each time.

That was Buffy in life in general. Defying the odds.

However the last thing Spike would have anticipated would be his strong, courageous Slayer fainting at the sight of his presence.

"Buffy! Buffy!" Spike's urgent tone came. He slapped her gently on the face. "Buffy! Rise and shine, love."

Nothing.

Spike began to panic a little, and he glanced around in search of the rest of the Scooby gang. As he'd been lurking in the distance of the morgue, awaiting the time when the staff would all have left for the day, he'd sensed Buffy's presence as she drew near – which was one of the perks of vampiric enhanced senses. He'd sensed her Watcher, and the little bit, and the useless Whelp – and then there was Buffy. Instead of running and hiding from her like a part of him wanted to, he'd been struck by a sudden intense desire to get the big reveal over and done with.

It had been a good few months since he'd been brought back, a good few months that he'd been hanging about 'helping' Angel at Wolfram and Hart. It was a miracle that Buffy hadn't already somehow heard of his resurrection; and he'd known it would only be a matter of time until she found out.

Evidently, it was meant to be now.

* * *

Gabriella was the first to hear the panicked British accent calling for help. She was the first to leap to her feet and defy Buffy's instructions to 'wait here' and head straight in the direction of the call. Troy was the first of the remainder of the group to follow, and the whole group fell into line, treading carefully but quickly around the building toward where the original noises had been coming from – and toward the voice they'd heard calling out.

"Spike," Giles said calmly.

"Oh good, Rupert," Spike said, for the first time in a long time feeling grateful to see the old man.

"What happened?" Xander asked, also calmly. He knelt beside Buffy, while Giles was rifling through the pack he'd been carrying.

"Spike," Dawn breathed – in a similar tone to that which her older sister had used.

Spike swallowed, and managed to throw the younger Summers' a smile.

"Nibblet."

"I… I don't understand," Dawn stammered.

"Uh… yeah. It's… complicated," Spike said tactfully.

"What the hell happened and why did she faint?" Gabriella demanded.

Spike took a moment to observe the two unfamiliar faces – the brunette girl who had just spoken, and the sandy haired boy who was clutching to her arm. His eyes narrowed slightly.

"I don't know who you are, but it seems the Slayer's just had a bit of a shock, is all."

"A bit of a shock?!?! What the hell Spike!" Dawn exclaimed, having moved from her initial state of being completely blown away into a place of demand – needing to understand.

"She's coming to," Xander said, from where he and Giles had calmly attended to Buffy's needs, retrieving a pack of smelling salts.

A sharp intake of breath from Buffy indicated that she'd awoken. Spike rushed to her side.

"Pet?" he said urgently.

"Spike?" she whispered, a hand reaching up to touch the side of his face, as though checking that he was actually there and present.

"It's me, luv, it's me. I'm here. You din't…. it was real. I'm real."

"You… you're back?" Buffy asked groggily, still regaining her bearings.

"Yeah luv, I'm back," Spike confirmed.

"How… what… when… I don't…" Buffy stammered, sitting upright.

"Take it easy, Slayer," Spike warned, and held out his hand to assist her in standing up right.

"I don't understand. You're… vampires don't just come back to life!" Dawn exclaimed.

"He's a vampire?!" Troy exclaimed, taking a few steps back warily.

"Uh, yes but… it's… complicated," Buffy said, rubbing her head. She then looked a little harder at Spike, and reached out to touch his arm. "Are you really you? I'm sorry but I just…"

"I'm me, pet. I'm not the First. I'm not any other kinda nasty tryin' to play with your mind."

"You're Spike? You're my Spike? Prove it to me!" Buffy said, hands on hips. "Tell me something that only I would know."

Spike cocked his head, his tongue pushing at his cheek slightly as he thought of many things which had happened with Buffy that no one else would know about. Things that he couldn't exactly announce in front of a crowd of people who were watching the interaction take place.

The truth was that Buffy had known it was him the moment she saw him – there was something that was just so innately Spike that no ghost or demon could possess. And if there had been any doubt in Buffy's mind that it was him, that expression, that very movement of the cock of the head and the tongue pushing against his cheek was enough to confirm it.

"I could tell you many things, pet. I could tell you that shirty _is_, in fact, a real word. I could tell you that the scar on your hand there is from your hand being lit on fire – sorry 'bout that, by the way. I could tell you all 'bout the best night of my life… of all my lives. Of my life as a human, of my life as a vampire… and this second time around life I seem to have been given."

"It's really you," Buffy whispered, tears pricking at her eyes.

She spontaneously threw her arms around Spike, embracing him in a tight hug. Spike was more than a little surprised, but also welcomed the hug. There was no doubting that her slim figure felt perfect within his arms.

"Okay, I'm sorry, but I have to interrupt!" Troy said, stepping into the centre. He grasped onto Buffy's arm, and pulled her back. "A few days ago, my girlfriend develops some super human strength and you people arrive in town and tell us that she's some…. Vampire slayer. And you go on to tell us all about vampires and how they kill and turn people and about the weapons that you can use to kill them. And now, we're here – outside the morgue, I should add – trying to determine whether this person who was killed has been turned by a vampire. And now, the head Slayer is hugging a vampire and crying because he's alive?!"

"Troy it's… it's very complicated," Buffy said. "See there was… there was an amulet."

"A what-ulet?" Troy said blankly.

"An amulet. A magical amulet," Buffy specified.

"An object which brings good luck or protection to its owner," Gabriella explained softly. She too was curious, and confused, and Troy's outburst had in many ways mirrored many of her thoughts – but she was more patient. Within the past few days she'd developed an innate trust within Buffy, and knew that things would be explained in more detail when the time was right. Troy on the other hand, was requiring answers immediately.

"Well really, before the amulet there was the soul. See, Spike is a vampire, but… he's different. He has a soul."

"Why?" Troy asked, arms folded across his chest.

"Uh… also complicated," Spike said uncomfortably. _Because I went to Africa, faced torture and trials, all because I sought my soul to become worthy of the woman I loved._

"What does that mean? You have a soul? Big deal."

Buffy sighed. "Okay, well, I guess to explain, I have to go back and talk about the chip."

"A potato chip?" Troy enquired.

"No, a computer chip," Buffy said, her tone strained. "It was in his head. And…"

Troy was shaking his head, at the point of being unable to comprehend any of what he was being told. "A computer chip gave him a soul?"

"No!"

"Buffy," Giles intervened. "Uh… perhaps this isn't the time or place to be explaining the… the grey within the black and white, to Troy and Gabriella."

Buffy nodded, and turned back to Spike, her eyes brightening as she once again took in his features.

"I can't believe you're back. I don't… I don't understand."

"I don't quite understand everything myself," Spike admitted. "I think that in this crazy world we live in, sometimes 's better to not question things, and just go with it. I've been given another chance, another chance to do good. All that matters is that I'm back, and for real."

"Really for real?"

"Really for real, Buff," Xander spoke up from behind.

Buffy spun around, hands on hips as she looked at Xander carefully. "You… you knew about this already?" she asked incredulously.

Xander winced. "Uh… sorta."

"We decided that perhaps we shouldn't tell you, that it wasn't our place to tell you," Giles cut in, defending Xander.

"You knew too?!" Buffy exclaimed.

"I can't believe you both knew that Spike was alive and didn't tell us!" Dawn chimed in.

"How did the pair of you know? _I _certainly didn't tell you," Spike said.

"Andrew," Giles explained simply. "From when he was in LA. He told us."

Spike rolled his eyes. "Stupid Berk."

"_Andrew_ knew?" Buffy said incredulously, now looking between Spike, Xander and Giles with her hands on her hips. "From when he was in LA? That was like, almost a month ago. You've been in LA for almost a month and I'm only just being told that you're back? You've kept it from me for almost a month?!?!"

Spike decided in that moment that it was best to come completely clean – there was no point in trying to conceal the truth, because inevitably at some point it would come out.

"Uh… actually… I've been back a bit longer," Spike said tactfully. "When I first came back, I was like incorporeal… a ghost. And I couldn't leave LA, literally."

"So when did you first come back then?" Buffy asked.

Spike hesitated. "Uh… a few months ago."

"A FEW MONTHS AGO?!?!" Dawn's shrill exclamation came, causing those around her to wince from the decibel she'd reached.

"Dawn…" Xander said quietly, warningly.

Buffy's own eyes were wide. "Months?"

"Uhh… yeah. Months," Spike confirmed.

"So… I send my strongest warrior in to battle, you get killed, you come back to life and a few _months_ later, I find out? And surely you weren't planning to run into me here, you didn't know we were in town, did you?"

"No. But when I got here… I sensed you were here. And I din't run, surely I get points for that."

"So when you had this big battle thing last year which made all these girls Slayers, you were fighting along side a vampire…" Troy said dubiously.

Buffy sighed in exasperation, the judgement in Troy's tone seeping through. She turned to Troy. "Look. I don't know you all that well. But you don't know anything about this situation. It's very complicated and I'm sure someone will give you the Cliff's Notes later. But right now, you can just take your tone and sit down, okay?"

Buffy then turned back to Spike, and without warning, her hand rose and she struck him with an open palmed slap across the cheek. Over the past seven years, Buffy and Spike had been in countless fights. They'd punched and kicked, they'd used all sorts of weapons, they'd fought almost to the death. Buffy was strong and Spike was almost as strong – and he had taken all sorts of wrath from her, he'd withstood all sorts of violence.

But somehow, it was her girlish slap across the cheek that caused more pain than any sort of pain she'd caused him before.

"Why didn't you tell me that you were back?" Buffy demanded, her voice low, almost a whisper.

Spike glanced around at the people who were trying to act like they weren't there, to disappear into the trees. "Uh Slayer… why don't we hash this out later, luv?"

"Are you here, at the morgue, for the same reason that we are?" Giles asked.

Spike nodded. "There was some suspicious supernatural activity picked up in this region, and the Forehead sent me to have a look into the situation."

"The Forehead? You… You've been working with Angel?" Buffy said, putting the pieces together.

"Uh, yeah. I sorta… appeared at Wolfram and Hart. That's where I was when I first came back, and then Fred – one of the birds that's working with Peaches – she's all sciencey and was trying to figure out what the hell was going on. And then I just stuck 'round."

"You've been back for months, working with Angel… Angel knew you were back. The two of you knew that you were back. And none of you told me…" Buffy said incredulously.

Spike cleared his throat, and turned back to Giles. "Yeah, so I did a bit'f research today 'n thought I'd start by swinging by here to try to work out whether these deaths are supernatural. Check out the body."

"We're not all really needed for that. I'm sure that if it turns out we do have a siring situation, that between myself, Xander, Dawn, Gabriella and Troy, we can handle it. How about we all go inside and look into it, and we can leave these two to… talk," Giles said tactfully.

"Good idea," Xander agreed.

Dawn glanced forlornly at where Spike and Buffy were standing across from one another, their stance somewhat defensive. Buffy observed her sisters stare and went over, and caressed her arm.

"I'll tell you about it later, you won't miss out on finding out what's going on," Buffy said quietly.

Dawn nodded, and allowed Giles to usher her away with Xander, Gabriella and Troy. The fivesome moved quietly, doing a careful circumference of the building, keeping their eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary. When they came back to their starting position, Buffy and Spike had both vanished from within eyesight and earshot.

"Okay, I know that I'll get the Cliff's Notes version of all this later but can I just clarify, in the form of the Cliff's Notes of the Cliff's Notes – so… Spike is a vampire?" Troy queried.

"Yes," Xander answered.

"And we're not killing him, because…."

Xander smirked. "I like this kid."

"Because of the soul," Giles answered, ignoring Xander. "And because… well, because if we did, Buffy wouldn't react very well."

"Troy? Why don't we just focus on the task at hand," Gabriella said softly. "And worry about that later. So. Are we going in? And… how are we going to get in, exactly? Do we just… break in? Don't you think they have security systems and alarms and cameras?"

Xander nodded. "The answer is yes, but that we've already looked into it and the solution is fairly simple." He gestured toward the electricity meter box that they could see from where they were standing.

"Cut the power," Troy said, nodding.

"What if they have a back up power system?" Gabriella said dubiously.

"They don't. Not at night," Giles said.

"How do you know this?" Gabriella asked.

"We have our ways," Xander said elusively.

"All right then, let's get in there and do this," Troy said, moving straight toward the power box.

Giles grasped his arm. "You can't just run off half cocked, you git. We do this carefully – especially without a Slayer with us."

"We have a Slayer, Gabriella is here," Troy said, rolling his eyes.

"A _trained_ Slayer," Giles clarified. "All right, so I suggest that myself and Dawn go around to the other side of the building to watch for any individuals who may be approaching from the distance. Xander, you go over with Troy and Gabriella to the electricity meter. Show them how to do it, but you all need to keep your eyes and ears open."

If Gabriella had allowed herself to think about the overall situation, she may had burst into tears or perhaps into hysterical laughter. Gabriella was a good girl, a good student, she'd never ditched class, she'd never cheated in a test, she'd never shoplifted a candy from the convenience store. And here she was, out lurking outside the morgue in the dark, planning to cut the electricity to the building to facilitate breaking and entering so they could investigate a vampire situation.

She quietly stood back, observing as Xander demonstrated with switches and cords – and looked up in amazement as the dim lighting that was emitting from the buildings night lights faded away, an eerie silence falling over the area without the hum of various machinery on standby inside.

The fivesome met up just around the side of the building, near a side door.

"Now what?" Troy asked expectantly. "Do we break a window? Ooohhh can I do it?!"

"No, we don't break a window. We go through the door," Dawn said.

"How?" Both Troy and Gabriella asked simultaneously, knowing it would be locked.

Xander gestured to Gabriella. "You will be able to get us through their."

"What, do I have some like, magical floating through walls ability," she joked.

"No. You'll be strong enough to break the lock," Giles said.

Dawn reached into her pocket and pulled out a pair of gloves to put on, and then said, "Buffy kinda does it like this." The younger Summers sister demonstrated Buffy's normal movements, the force and angle at which she'd turn and tug at the door handle and it would magically break open. "Except, you know, that would work."

Gabriella took a deep breath and glanced sideways at Troy, who smiled encouragingly. "Okay. Okay, I can do this." She grasped onto the handle, tugging once, twice, and then on the third time, the lock broke and the door swung open. Gabriella smiled triumphantly. "There."

* * *

Buffy and Spike had moved just across the street from the morgue. With Spike's super vampire senses, he would still be able to hear if any kind of trouble had broken out – and Buffy knew that Dawn would have her cell phone out and ready to speed dial Buffy's number if something happened to go wrong.

"I was scared," Spike said bluntly, opening the conversation. "I could give you a million excuses Buffy. Peaches is the one who discouraged me from seeking you out, who said that finally maybe you could move on. And yeah, that was true, a part of me knew that you deserved more than anything I could ever offer you. I could tell you that I was just so wrapped up in my work at Wolfram and Hart – but the truth is that I don't trust Angel as far as your sister could throw him. Yes I'm working with his company but I'm aware that there's some dodgy stuff going on, and I don't blame Andrew for any of his attitude when he was in Los Angeles. No, the reason I didn't come find you was because I was scared."

"Scared of what?!"

"Scared of… of us. Scared because everything that happened during those last few days before I…. before the big battle… scared because if there was ever a time when I could think that maybe something could happen between us, it would have been after everything that happened. And I guess a part of me prefers living with the memory of those few days, than the idea of coming to find you and…"

"And being rejected?" Buffy supplied quietly. "How do you think I felt? Telling you that I love you, and having you insist that I don't? Do you really… after everything that happened, do you really think that I'd just throw those words around casually? Oh, poor Spike, he's about to die, maybe I should say something nice for him to hear before he goes?"

"I din't think it was like that," Spike said quietly. "I guess I thought… maybe that in that moment, you felt like you loved me. I believe that you felt it at the time but pet… I couldn't know it was real. And… I wanted you to get out. If I'd said it back… would you have left? And let me just stay?"

Buffy paused, and contemplated. "No. I would have… dragged you out, or something."

"Exactly. And I can't explain it to you, but I just had to do it. And you, of all people, should understand that, luv."

"I do understand that. But I just… I still… _months_ Spike? You… you really thought that I wouldn't find out? Especially after you saw Andrew, and found out that we've been keeping an eye on what's happening at Wolfram and Hart? I shouldn't have found out this way, not like this."

"You're right. I'm a coward and an idiot," Spike said bluntly. "And I want to change that. Seeing you now… I know I was wrong. I shouldn't have let Peaches make me second guess myself, my instinct from the start was to run and find you. If I hadn't have been forced to stay in Los Angeles while I was all ghostie like, I woulda come found you straight away."

"I just… I can't believe you're here," Buffy breathed, her eyes wide as she took in his form. "I can't… I thought…"

"I know luv, I know," Spike said gently.

The two stood in silence, staring at one another in bewilderment, just allowing themselves to become immersed in the simple fact that they were both together, there, at the same time.

Spike was broken from his reverie – by the sound of a crash coming from inside of the morgue. His ears pricked up, he tensed slightly.

"What, what did you hear?" Buffy asked immediately.

"How fresh is your new Slayer?" Spike asked immediately.

"A couple of days."

"We should get over there, just in case. Better to be safe than sorry."

* * *

Spike's intervention turned out to be completely unnecessary. The crash had sounded from inside of one of the rooms in the morgue, just as Gabriella and the others had entered into the facility. Gabriella took charge, marching straight in the direction of the sound. The fledgling vampire had already rose, Giles quickly identifying that it was indeed the woman who had been reported as among the mysterious deaths. His identification process took place whilst Gabriella was in the midst of pummelling her. At first she'd just been in her human guise, prowling about and snarling slightly, and Gabriella had taken a moment to realise that it was in fact a vampire. It had been easier in the cemetery when the guy had been in game face. But the moment she changed, Gabriella knew what she had to do.

Her technique wasn't very polished, but as Giles observed the young Slayer in action, he couldn't help but smile at the potential that he saw within her. The sheer determination, the bravery she exhibited despite the timid nature she'd displayed outside. Under pressure, when it truly counted, she was a warrior, there was no doubting it.

Buffy and Spike arrived just in time to see Gabriella thrust the stake through the heart of the vampire, a cloud of dust appearing. Second time around, Gabriella wasn't quite as frightened by what she had done. It was all a bit of a blur, but on a certain level, it was sinking in that doing this was a part of who she was now.

"So… we have a situation with a whole bunch of turnings on hand in Sunnydale," Dawn said.

"Quite possibly," Giles mused.

"So, she went well?" Buffy asked brightly.

"She was awesome," Troy declared proudly, an arm giving his girlfriend a half hug. "She just like, fully charged in there and knew exactly what she had to do."

Gabriella glanced at her watch. "Um, I have a curfew. How much longer are we going to be here?"

"Uh, let's go outside shall we, have a quick discussion," Giles said.

The group shuffled out of the morgue, grateful to be back outside away from the depressing vibe that existed within the building, and began to move back toward the park to cut back toward their vehicles.

"So Gabriella. We have a lot to discuss with you," Giles began – and then paused as he gave Spike a slight side eye.

Spike cleared his throat, aware of the glance. "Okay, I'm obviously not a part of this. Uh… look. I know that none of you particularly trust Angel and his mob – and neither do I. I work with him so that I got given an all expenses paid trip out here away from him, and a Ferrari to drive around. If you're doing the whole research thing tomorrow, I'm in, I want to work with you on this. I've got a lot of information that the old Watcher – Wesley – sent with me. It might work better to compile our resources."

"Um… how can I contact you?" Buffy asked, a little awkwardly.

Spike dug around in his coat pocket, until he pulled out a sleek shiny Sidekick. "Uh… I don't quite know how to use it, but if you call me, then I know to press that button and it'll answer."

"What's your number?" Buffy asked.

Spike stared at her blankly. "Number?"

"Phone number?" she prompted, raising her eyebrows.

"Oh. Right. Um… I should know that, shouldn't I?"

She rolled her eyes and took the item from his hand, her fingertips brushing against his skin for a moment as she did. Her eyes flickered up, meeting his for a brief second, before looking away to look at his phone. She dialled her own number from his phone, and waited until her phone began to ring in her pocket before hanging up. She then slid out her own cell phone, ensuring that his number was now displayed in her missed calls. Buffy quickly punched a few buttons on his phone before handing it back to him.

"Okay, I have your number now. And you have mine… if for some reason you decide to learn how to use the thing."

Spike nodded. "Great. Uh… I'll be out and about tonight. You know, in the cemeteries. If you are around."

Buffy nodded. "Maybe. I'll see."

"Great. Well uh…" Spike glanced around at the group, attempting to sound light. "Nice seeing you all. And… well, not really meeting the two of you but… yes."

Troy didn't say anything, just glared slightly at the vampire that he wasn't quite trustworthy of yet. He was still wrapping his head around the 'vampires are real my girlfriend has to kill them' concept, let along moving onto the 'but some vampires aren't entirely evil so we don't kill them' concept.

"Spike?" Dawn said, somewhat hesitantly.

"L'il Bit?" Spike intoned, stepping closer to her.

"Is this for real this time? You're not gonna go and leave us again, are you?"

Spike sighed. "I have no plans on going anywhere. And if they come about, I'd like to think I'll be able to give you fair warning."

"Okay." That was all Dawn needed, and she wrapped her arms around Spike in a tight hug. Spike was somewhat surprised, and blinked at the sensation of her warm hug in shock before allowing his arms to hug her back. She stepped away. "If Buffy doesn't call you, I'll steal her cell phone and call you."

Spike grinned. "You do that, Nibblet."

And with that, black leather coat flapping in the breeze, Spike trudged away from the group.

"So, are you gonna explain about _that_ now?" Troy prompted immediately.

"Later," Buffy said shortly. "Remember, you're not even meant to be here. I wouldn't be showing attitude."

Troy rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

Gabriella's fingers were laced through Troy's and she squeezed his hand. She didn't care what they thought – Troy was meant to be there, right by her side. There was no other place that he was meant to be.

"Okay, Gabriella. This seems almost ideal, that as we're working on this situation here in Sunnydale, it will be like a practical training course for you, seeing what the work of a slayer is like at ground level," Giles said. "During this time, I think it's best that we conduct some basic training sessions as soon as possible, just to arm you with some of the basic techniques of the craft of self defence – and of attack."

"Uh… okay," Gabriella said.

"We also will need to discuss the best way of informing your mother about the scenario…"

Gabriella let out a slight hack. "My mother?" she squeaked. "You want… you want…. You want to _tell_ my mother? That there are vampires and that her daughter is some Slayer."

"I know that seems crazy but it's going to make your life a whole lot easier," Buffy assured her. "How did you get permission to come here tonight?"

Gabriella bristled. "I told her I had to go do some photocopying at the library and was going to stay study. And she wasn't home when you picked me up."

"Exactly. Those excuses wear thin sooner or later," Buffy said.

"Uh… we can talk about it, but… for now, I'll just do this my way, thanks," Gabriella said awkwardly.

"Okay, we can do that," Xander said quickly, not wanting Buffy or Giles to push her.

"I wasn't kidding about my curfew, I really have to go,'' Gabriella said quietly.

"I'll drive you," Troy said straight away.

"Why don't we come pick you up from school tomorrow, what time do you finish?" Giles asked.

Gabriella cleared her throat, and glanced sideways at Troy. "Uh…"

"I can drive her wherever you want her to go," Troy said firmly.

Gabriella didn't protest and merely shuffled further into Troy's side, and none of the others were willing to protest. It seemed that his acceptance of her Calling was going to be a large part of her own acceptance of it – and seeing what she was capable of was going to contribute toward his acceptance.

"Okay then. We can meet at our hotel then, do you…"

"I remember where it is," Troy said.

"Bring work out clothes," Buffy advised Gabriella, the younger Slayer nodding in understanding.

"Okay. I will. Thanks for tonight," Gabriella said awkwardly. "It was uh… well fun isn't the word. Educational, I guess."

"Yeah, thanks for letting me tag along, it was awesome," Troy said, already shifting to split off and walk faster toward his truck.

"See you guys later," Gabriella called behind her shoulder, before snuggling further into Troy's side as the couple beelined toward his beat up truck.

Giles arms folded across his chest as they slowed down, watching the younger pair walk off into the distance.

"Must be nice," Buffy said quietly. "Having someone to support you so unconditionally."

"Do you think its good, that she is relying upon him so heavily?" Giles intoned.

Buffy shrugged. "I know that these first weeks are the hardest, and I know how hard it is doing that without anyone there with you."

"There's support and there's…" Xander began to say, trailing off. "What if he gets too involved?"

"I don't think you're one to talk Xander, I never saw you stepping back from being right in the front line," Buffy pointed out.

"His involvement just seems different. He's not only there supporting her with the cause, but also just with herself, emotionally."

"We'll just need to keep an eye on it. Make sure he doesn't become a liability," Giles said carefully.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Troy was pulling up outside of Gabriella's house, just minutes short of her curfew.

"Home safe and sound," Troy said quietly.

Gabriella nodded. "I'm just imaging my mom asking how it went, referring to the study. 'Yeah mom it went well, I slayed my second vampire ever'," Gabriella said sarcastically.

Troy couldn't help but crack a grin. "She would faint. Or laugh, thinking you were joking."

"Yeah."

"How are you feeling?" he asked, biting his lip lightly.

"Uh… surreal. I still keep waiting to wake up. Each minute the scenario becomes more surreal… but I become a little bit more aware that I'm not gonna wake up."

"I think you're being so brave. I don't know how you're coping with it. I'd be… I don't think I could do it," Troy confessed.

"I do it coz I have to, I guess. There's no choice but to deal with it."

"Doesn't change that I'm proud of you."

Troy leaned forward, pressing his lips to hers softly. She reciprocated his kiss, her tongue trailing along his lower lip and nudging his mouth to part slightly, allowing their tongues to caress and play and dance. They pulled apart, foreheads resting together.

"Troy?" Gabriella whispered.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you for coming tonight. Thank you for knowing… for knowing that I needed you."

"You're welcome."

"You'd better go. You'll be late," Gabriella said, glancing at the time.

"Do you want me to sneak over?"

Gabriella hesitated. "Want you to? Kinda. But… I think I need to be alone tonight. I think its important that I can be alone for a while."

Troy nodded. "If you change your mind… I'm a text or a phone call away. Or you can just call me, and we can just talk. If you need me."

"I always need you," Gabriella murmured. "And even when you're not there… I know that I have you."

* * *

**A/N - **If anyone still cares about this, pretty please let me know that you're not _too_ angry with me and you understand that I'm not completely evil and that I just... was really naughty with not writing this for ages... *Bats eyelashes.* -Dani xo


	8. The Space Between

**C H O S E N**

**The Insane Works of Dani aka Pandora147**

* * *

**8. The Space Between**

* * *

It had been less than a day and a half earlier that Gabriella's world had been turned upside turn.

Somehow, it felt like a lot longer.

On Monday night, she was staring at her ceiling. She was now regretting telling Troy to not worry about sneaking over. She'd clung to him the night before, absolutely certain that she couldn't have made it through the night without his support. However that night, she'd been insistent that she had to sleep alone and not form a habit of relying upon the comfort of his warm, muscular body holding her tight.

Gabriella used to love sleeping. Her bedroom had once been a place of comfort and warmth. Where she could escape from the worries and stresses of life; where she could be tucked up among her comforter and fall into a peaceful slumber away from dramas. Her bedroom was filled with good memories – she could glance around and see photos of her friend and family adorning the walls and bookshelves; she could look at the balcony door and practically envisage Troy standing there.

Her bedroom wasn't quite as comforting any more. It didn't feel quite as sheltered from the problems of the world. And it was in her bedroom two nights earlier that she'd had nightmares – which hadn't exactly been filled with blood and gore, but there was something intrinsically creeping and foreboding about them.

Gabriella had good hearing on a bad day. In the still of the night when she was wide awake and her senses were ultra heightened with thoughts of the last couple of nights – she practically had super sonic hearing. And there was a definite sound out on her balcony. Her decorative curtains didn't block the view of the balcony, and peering out there, she couldn't see anything.

She reached out onto her bedside table, immediately clutching at her cell phone. There was another sound, and Gabriella sensed the slightest of movements outside.

"Troy?!" Gabriella hissed.

Gabriella clutched at her phone a little tighter, her finger now hovering above the number 1, ready to speed dial Troy if necessary.

"Troy?" she hissed once more, more insistently. "If you're trying to be funny, this is really not the time for it."

Gabriella reached under her pillow, groping for the stake which she'd cautiously placed there. She seized the piece of wood and, body shaking, made her way out of bed, the side furthest from the balcony.

"It's just the wind, just the wind, just the wind," Gabriella murmured under her breath, as she crept across the room. Slowly, carefully, she reached out and grasped onto the handle of the door, allowing it to open before she jumped back.

And then Buffy came into view.

"I hope I didn't wake you up," Buffy said anxiously. "I just thought you might still be awake and…"

"I was awake; but you just scared the crap out of me!" Gabriella exclaimed.

Buffy gestured at the stake in Gabriella's hand. "You do realise that if I'd been a vampire, I couldn't have come in, anyway?"

"You could've thrown a rock at my window and then shot me or something though," Gabriella said darkly. She stood back, as if to allow Buffy to come in, but then hesitated. "Umm… how do I know that maybe you aren't a vampire? Like… you might've been turned on your way here…"

Buffy smirked. "I admire your caution, however given that I'm wearing a cross as a necklace that is unlikely. And also, just to prove it to you…" Buffy walked straight in. "You didn't verbalise the invite, and I entered anyway. So, your boyfriend comes in through there huh? That tree is pretty handy."

Gabriella blushed. "Not all the time. But my mom is a pretty heavy sleeper so…"

She gestured for Buffy to take a seat wherever she wanted. Buffy perched on Gabriella's bed, the younger slayer sitting at her desk chair.

"Are you out… patrolling?" Gabriella asked, almost stumbling over the world.

Buffy nodded. "Yes. I was out for a little while and just made my way over in this area and thought I might drop by. I uh… I guess I wanted to apologise about tonight."

"Apologise?" Gabriella asked, eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

"With… Spike. And everything. It wasn't exactly as productive of an evening as I would have hoped," Buffy lamented.

"Oh! That's not your fault. I don't really understand any of it, but I know it's not your fault," Gabriella said, surprised that Buffy had even apologised.

"I um… it's very complicated, the whole thing," Buffy said. "To explain it to you properly would really take forever. But I guess I wanted to tell you the short version myself. Truthfully, I don't think we should _have_ to tell you anything, but I have no doubt that Xander and Giles will express their opinions to you and I'd rather tell you myself, since it's my story to tell."

"You don't have to tell me," Gabriella said. "I… I know that Troy was a little intense tonight, demanding to have things explained. He's very… he needs to know what's going on. In our social circle, he's like the central figure and it's never him who is kept out of the loop. That's why he's being so involved in all this and is trying to understand as much as he can – even the stuff that maybe isn't his place to understand."

"I know I don't have to tell you. Truthfully, I kinda want to talk about it. For so many reasons that I wouldn't know where to begin in explaining, neither Giles or Xander are exactly people I can talk to about Spike. And Dawn… I love her dearly, but there are some things that I just don't feel comfortable discussing with her in detail."

"Okay…" Gabriella said slowly.

"I won't lie to you, Spike was once upon a time evil. He was once, well, you could say a rival of mine. Almost killed each other more than once. Uh… we then wound up with… a common enemy," Buffy said tactfully.

"Why do I get the feeling that when you say this is a short version, it's more like a really, really, really, really, really, really, really short version," Gabriella remarked.

Buffy forced a smile. "Because it is. I just summarised a year of my life into a few sentences."

"Okay. That's fine. So you had a common enemy?"

Buffy nodded. "And we formed what I suppose you could call a tentative cease fire, to fight the common enemy together. He was… defeated. And Spike left town. He came back once the following year, during my senior year, caused some mayhem but in comparison to some of his actions the year before, it was nothing. Then during my first year in college, at UC Sunnydale, Spike returned again. Our first major encounter was potentially deadly but we both escaped alive."

"Obviously."

"Okay… here is where it gets complicated. Right. There is a branch of the government who is aware of supernatural activity," Buffy said.

"Really?!" Gabriella asked, genuinely surprised.

"Yes. They treat it very different – they treat it in a more scientific manner. Long story short, at the time, they had this undercover scientific military operation going on in Sunnydale, it was called The Initiative. They were using specially trained military agents to capture vampires and other demons, and were then performing scientific tests upon them. They were trialling a behaviour modification chip – basically, they would capture them, and then implant this chip into their brains which made it so that if the vampire or demon had the intent of hurting a human and hit them or kicked them or whatever, they would experience an overwhelming sensation of pain."

"That seems… I can't believe I'm saying this, but that seems really, really wrong," Gabriella said with a frown. "It's like those things that some people put on dogs, so they get an electric shock if they bark."

Buffy nodded. "Exactly. I agree. Anyway… so… again, long story short, Spike was captured, he had one of these chips implanted, and then he actually managed to break out – and being the… well, the moron that he is, he came to us for asylum. We begrudgingly gave it to him, mainly because we wanted to find out more about The Initiative. He was crashing at Giles' place, then at Xander's, and then he basically was living in a run down old crypt in one of the graveyards, he fixed it up with furniture and everything. Spike was struggling not being able to fight – its in the vampires nature to fight, to be violent. And so he wound up fighting demons, and helping us out randomly. This continued for a while, and then gradually he became more involved because he _wanted_ to be, rather than just because he was bored and needed something to do."

"Why?" Gabriella asked.

"Uh… okay. Evidently he developed feelings for me. Anyway. I then went through a… a bad patch. The world nearly ended – again – and uh… anyway. More glossing over details there. I wasn't in a great place and… Spike and I were… involved for a while. It possibly could have been healthy but it just took a bad turn and we both did things that we wound up regretting. And Spike left Sunnydale… in search of a soul. For…"

"For you?" Gabriella asked.

Buffy nodded, looking a little uncomfortable. "I feel conceited saying it but… yes."

"So, in this context, the soul is like… a conscience?" Gabriella asked.

Buffy nodded. "Basically, yeah. It's more complex I think, but I don't really get it completely. I just know… I've known and experienced two vampires both in the state with and without a soul. In Spike's case… he wanted a soul. He actively sought it out. Before he had his soul, in so many ways, he was a fighter; in so many ways he supported me and helped me to get through times that I wouldn't have gotten through without him. But with his soul… he was a champion."

"The champion that you loved," Gabriella said knowingly. "Or… is it love?"

Buffy sighed. "I should be so mad at him. We've got so much history… and for him to not tell me that he was back? It just… it feels like he was disrespecting everything we'd been through, how far we'd come. And for a few moments tonight, I was furious, beyond furious. But then… he just gets this look on his face. Maybe he fucked up but… I know that it was with good intent. I still see that way that he looks at me, that hasn't changed. And somehow… its like he gets a get out of jail free card or something."

"Were you ever together? Properly?"

"What like… going on dates and being a 'couple'?" Buffy asked incredulously, and Gabriella nodded. Buffy snorted. "Um. No."

"Would you want to?"

"Spike and I will never be normal. Couldn't be. He's a vampire – sure he has a soul, but he's a vampire. He can't walk in the sunlight, he can't reproduce, he drinks blood. People wouldn't approve, they…"

"That's it, isn't it? The people? Seriously, who cares what people think?"

Buffy exhaled. "It's complicated. I'm… I'm a role model, I…." Buffy stopped midsentence, interrupting herself. "No. That's not it at all. I don't care what people think, not usually, not if I'm adamant about how I'm feeling. It's as though with Spike, we haven't had the time to explore it. I think on a certain level, I'm afraid of exploring it. I'm afraid because everyone might be right. But I'm also afraid because everyone might be wrong."

"I know it's not exactly the same but… I kinda get it. I mean, according to what society says, Troy and I shouldn't be together. I'm the geeky math girl, he's the star basketball player. When I first met him, God knows that there was a lot of pressure from our friends to keep us apart, a hundred reasons why we shouldn't be going out. But despite all that – there was just this feeling somewhere deep inside that suspected that it was going to be the most amazing thing that could happen to me. Maybe it could have blown up, but at least I tried. I was lucky, it turned out well, better than well, amazingly."

"Better to have loved and lost…" Buffy mused.

"Precisely."

"I'm sorry, I'm totally unloading all this on you and I hardly even know you."

"Sometimes its good to vent to someone you don't know. It's like therapy."

"I like therapy," Buffy mused. "I had a therapy session once – sure it was with a guy who I went to high school with who'd been killed and turned into a vamp and he was a psych student. But it was therapy. It was interesting."

Gabriella let out a slight yawn. "I have a feeling I'm going to need therapy once I've been involved in this crazy world for a while."

"Ooohhh yeah. You totally will," Buffy agreed. "I know it all seems pretty scary but… there are moments where it's just the most rewarding thing you can do in the world. When you save someone's life, when you actually play a part in making the world safer – it makes it all worthwhile."

Buffy rose from the bed. "I'll let you sleep. I forget that you're not used to the whole, nocturnal thing like me. You'll get there, eventually. By the way, you should practice coming in and out of this balcony, it's gonna be really handy for when you have to go out patrolling after curfew."

Gabriella's eyes widened. "Are you being serious?"

Buffy nodded. "As a heart attack."

"Hey Buffy?"

"Yeah?"

"If you see Spike out patrolling, what are you going to do?"

Buffy sighed. "Don't know yet."

"You know, my father once gave me some really great advice. He said 'Carpe Diem.' Do you know what that means?"

Buffy gave the younger slayer a small smile. "Yes. I do. It means seize the day."

"Right."

"Sometimes seizing isn't the right thing to do," Buffy said.

"Sometimes it is though. Sometimes you won't know unless you try."

* * *

"Seize the day," Buffy murmured to herself, as she wandered through the cemetery. "So the advice failed for me once. But maybe it'll be different this time. Maybe…"

"Maybe you shouldn't be talking to yourself as you patrol through the cemetery, Pet. Makin' yourself a target for all the nasties out there, is what you are."

Buffy knew that voice anywhere. She turned around, a slight smile upon her face. "Some things never change, huh?"

"What do you mean?"

"It's just like the good old days. Except since then, you've gone to Africa, gotten your soul, we've saved the world from the biggest Apocalypse ever, you died, you've come back, and we're now here in Albuquerque, New Mexico – and you're still sneaking up behind me in cemeteries."

Spike grinned. "It's tradition, luv."

"You still have your jacket," Buffy observed, admiring the black leather which pooled around his thin frame.

"''s a remake. Not quite the same as the original, but has the same look."

"It looks the same to me."

"So what was this you were a-mutterin' 'bout when I snuck up on you? Seizing the day?" Spike asked.

Buffy took a breath. "Yes. About that. I uh…" she exhaled. "Oh, fuck it."

And in one swift movement, Buffy launched forward. The space between where she finished and he began dissolved, and their lips were united, bodies moulded together as they so perfectly did. It was a slow, passionate, lustful kiss, a kiss of longing, a kiss of want. Buffy so often in her life would analyse her decisions – it had been drilled into her since in her lift, spontaneous decisions had led to badness.

But Buffy had changed.

And sometimes, regardless of all the reasons to _not_ do something – there is an innate, overpowering feeling inside which surpasses the wariness. A yearning within which demands that you simply must do something.

And in that moment, she had to kiss him. She had to feel his rough lips against hers; she wanted to feel the hardness of his gelled, platinum hair beneath her finger tips; she wanted to feel the contrast of his cool palms raking over her warm skin.

Spike pulled apart from her, both gasping for breath – Buffy out of necessity, Spike out of habit of emulating human mannerisms.

"Buffy…" he breathed, his hands still resting upon her slender waist. He pressed a tender kiss to her lips. "Oh Buffy…"

"This doesn't mean that I forgive you…" Buffy warned – and the tender kiss that he was leaning in to press to her again was withheld.

"What does it mean then? That you want me?" Spike asked with a frown.

Buffy shook her head. "No… although, I do. But the kiss means... well… the kiss means that I miss you."

"I can deal with that."

* * *

The following morning, Gabriella and Troy greeted their friends out the front of the school and she then split away to drop a permission slip for an excursion to one of her teachers. She realised she was busting to go to the bathroom, and there was then a queue in the restroom, and she absentmindedly took a wrong turn in the hallway on her way to homeroom – and then the bell rang and she was late – an offense punishable by death in the hallowed classroom of Ms. Darbus.

The door was already closed. Gabriella grasped at the handle to yank the door open – and the handle broke off in her hand. Ms. Darbus had heard the noise at the door and had looked up to see Gabriella peering through the glass window, and strode over to the door.

"Ms. Montez!" she barked. "You are late! And… What _is_ that?"

"Err… it's the door handle, Ms. Darbus," Gabriella said sheepishly. "It broke when I opened the door."

"Detention for being tardy!" Ms. Darbus declared.

"But Ms. Darbus…"

"Do not argue with me! Now give me the door handle and sit down!"

Gabriella pouted but nevertheless handed over the handle to Ms. Darbus and made her way to her seat at the back.

She had a feeling that it was going to be a terrible day.

* * *

"How long could it possibly take for Buffy to run to wherever it is that Spike is staying and bring him back here?" Xander said lowly to Giles, not wanting Dawn to overhear his comment.

Giles sighed. "Perhaps she got lost."

"Perhaps they got distracted," Xander said, rolling his eyes.

"Look, we knew it was only going to be a matter of time before she found out he was back. At least this way, we're here to watch and see how it goes," Giles pointed out.

"Yes, we're doing such great watching right now. Why didn't one of us go with her?"

"This is Buffy, Xander, you and I know very well that she wasn't going to _let_ one of us go with her."

"She's been doing so well! I just can't help but think that Spike is going to be this huge set back for her."

Giles paused. "She's been pretending to be doing well. In reality… I don't think she was dealing with her grief very well. I almost wonder if on a certain level she felt as though she was lacking a feeling of finality. Intuitively knowing that he was around."

"Oh please, she had no idea whatsoever, she fainted for crying out loud!"

"On a different level, I'm talking Xander, subconsciously," Giles said patiently.

"Can't you two just stop ragging Buffy for two minutes."

Xander and Giles looked up sheepishly to see Dawn standing in the doorway.

"Dawnster. We uh, thought you were asleep," Xander said sheepishly.

"I was. Until you two came in here and started gossipping like girls about my sister. Why would you come and do it in here when you could be talking in your room across the hallway,"

"Well all the research is in here," Giles said, as though this justified the fact.

Dawn sighed. "I know neither of you like it, but here's a newsflash about my sister – she loves Spike. She's never going to have this 'normal' life that everyone says she should be trying to. Why not let her just enjoy the life that she has? Besides, who cares if she's making a mistake? That's _her_ prerogative to make that mistake."

* * *

Gabriella had volunteered to assist the drama club with their fundraising efforts which were taking place that lunch time. A part of her wanted to bail, but since she was in Ms. Darbus' bad books at the moment she knew it was best that she adhere to the commitment she'd made. The Wildcats had all moved out to the quad, as Gabriella, Ryan and Kelsi were all directly assisting with the refreshment stall that was set up. There was a slushie machine – with red and blue the two flavours available – which Gabriella was manning; a bake sale which Ryan was overseeing; leaving Kelsi with the soft serve ice cream machine.

The bright side was that Gabriella had 'accidentally' made a raspberry slushie – and not wanting to put it to waste, had stuck a straw in and proceeded to drink it herself.

A pair of warm arms wrapped around her from behind.

"Drinking the merchandise, are you Miss Montez?" Troy's teasing voice murmured into her ear.

Gabriella nodded happily. "I love slushies."

"You're so adorable," Troy said.

"Do you want some?" she asked, holding up her cup to him.

Troy sucked a little out of the straw, smiling as the sweet flavour hit his tastebuds.

"It's even better because your cherry lip gloss is on the straw," he said with a laugh.

He went to take another sip, but Gabriella held the cup away. "Nuh-uh, you have to buy one. They're only a dollar."

"A dollar? You want me to fork over a whole dollar?" Troy asked incredulously.

"I'll put on a fresh coat of lip gloss and suck on the straw, if you like," Gabriella teased.

"I can think of something I'd rather you sucked on," Troy murmured coyly.

"Troy!" Gabriella gasped.

"Sorry. I'm in a mood."

"I gathered that earlier, when you kept grabbing my ass during free period."

"You're my girlfriend, I think a little ass gropage is permitted."

"In the _library?_"

Troy grinned. "Okay. Go on, make my slushie."

"Raspberry?"

"Yes please. And I'm just going to buy a cookie as well."

Gabriella nodded and turned to the machine, grabbing a cup and placing it beneath the requisite nozzle. She pulled the handle.

And for the second time that day, the handle remained in her hand.

While the raspberry slushie liberally poured into the cup.

Gabriella's eyes widened, and she quickly attempted to fasten the handle back on, without any luck.

"Shit!" she swore, as she was twisting and trying to bash the handle back into place.

Meanwhile Troy's cup had filled, and the slushie was pouring over the edge. Gabriella yelped and grabbed at a spare cup. The slushie was pouring out more rapidly than it had been.

"Help!" she cried, and began to look around for an 'off' button, as was still trying to screw the nozzle back into place.

Gabriella grabbed at a third cup as the second also began to overflow, changing them over.

"Woah!" Troy exclaimed rushing over. "I said _one_ slushie for me thanks babe," he joked.

"Troy! Help me! It won't stop!" Gabriella exclaimed.

"Pull out the extension cord!"

"Huh?"

Troy pointed to where there was a lead going from a nearby outdoor power outlet to the machine.

"Oh!"

Gabriella yanked at the cord – and the machine promptly stopped operating as the third cup began to overflow.

"What happened?" Troy asked.

Without speaking a word, Gabriella held up the handle.

* * *

"Oh shit… oh Spike…" Buffy moaned.

Spike had magic hands. Whether they were performing an act of violence or an act of love, they were genius hands. And as his nimble fingers were stroking gentle ministrations upon Buffy's bare breasts, there was no doubting that he knew exactly what he was doing.

"Fuck Buffy… so good…" Spike's panted response came, responding equally well to her kneading of his buttocks with the occasional graze of the index finger over his perineum.

One thing was certain.

Buffy couldn't care less what Xander and Giles thought of her behaviour.

* * *

Troy had put his plan into play at lunch time. After the incident with the slushie machine, Gabriella had patiently put the handle back on – Troy standing and covering the view from curious onlookers, she was able to shove the handle in with oomph when she wasn't freaking out and rushing it. She'd then refused to have anything to do with it, deciding that she would just go sulk in the library. Zeke had kind heartedly offered to take over. Troy was going to rush after his girlfriend, but it was almost time for the second last period of the day – final period was drama, after which Gabriella was being kept back for her twenty minute detention.

His plan worked perfectly. Ms. Darbus operated according to clock work. She would begin the lesson by outlining the material they were covering that day, and then five minutes into class she would move onto her cell phone lecture. Regardless of whether she was leading a homeroom, substituting for an absent teacher, overseeing a study hall or teaching a class of her own – she would embark upon the cell phone lecture. And of course, the worst possible time for someone to break the cell phone code was during or immediately after that lecture.

Seven minutes into drama class, Troy's cell phone began to ring.

"WHOSE CELL PHONE IS THAT?!"

Troy made a show out of slowly pull it from his pocket and fumbling around to mute the ringing

"Bolton! You have been in my drama class for _a year and a half. _You have been in my homeroom for _three and a half years._ Do you or do you now know what my position on cell phone usage is?!" Ms. Darbus demanded.

"Uh, you don't like them much, do you?" Troy commented.

"DETENTION!" Ms. Darbus shouted. "I'll see you after school. There is some gum that needs to be scraped from some chairs in the auditorium."

Troy could hear his friends snickering behind him, but he dared to take a quick glance back at Gabriella. The frown which had been on her face was now a small smile – knowing that he'd planned to get detention to be with her.

'Thank you,' Gabriella mouthed.

Troy winked and shot her a smile, before turning back around to face Ms. Darbus – he was willing to face the wrath of one afternoon of detention for his girlfriend, but he wasn't going to risk having that extended to a whole week.

Unless Gabriella broke another door handle and was sentenced to a week's detention. Then he might have to organise for his cell to go off again.

As for Gabriella - she was smiling to herself thinking that maybe the day wasn't so terrible after all.

* * *


End file.
